Embodiments for dynamically generating a portal site map may include determining a root node of a navigational construct of a portal site, where the root node has one or more child nodes. Embodiments may further include recursively crawling through the one or more child nodes of the root node to discover a composition subtree for at least one of the child nodes, the composition subtree comprising information relating to one or more portlets associated with at least one of the child nodes. Embodiments may further include generating a portal site map having an indication of the one or more child nodes and an indication of the one or more portlets associated with at least one of the child nodes. Further embodiments may include generating a portlet response based on the generated portal site map.