Backstage is an open-source framework for building developer portals. It provides a central place for developers to discover software, understand ownership, use software templates, browse technical documentation, and integrate engineering tools through plugins.
One of its core features is the Software Catalog, which keeps metadata about services, websites, libraries, APIs, systems, resources, users, and groups in a consistent format.
For a local standalone installation, review the official Backstage prerequisites before starting:
See the official installation guide for the complete and most up-to-date requirements:
Create a local Backstage application with the official scaffolding command:
npx @backstage/create-app@latest
Enter a name for the application when prompted, for example:
my-backstage-app
Then start the application:
cd my-backstage-app
yarn start
When the application is ready, open:
http://localhost:3000
Backstage organizes software metadata through its Software Catalog. Catalog entities are usually defined in YAML files, and the recommended filename for an entity descriptor is catalog-info.yaml.
A basic component contains fields such as:
apiVersionkindmetadataspecTry the runnable example in basics/ to create a local Backstage application and register a sample service in the Software Catalog.
Useful documentation:
After becoming familiar with the Software Catalog, explore other Backstage capabilities:
Useful documentation:
practice/.