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README.md

Backstage

Backstage is an open platform for building developer portals.
It unifies infrastructure tooling, services, and documentation into a single catalog-driven UI.

How Backstage works

flowchart LR
    Dev([Developer]) -->|:7007| Backstage[Backstage App]
    Backstage --> Catalog[Software Catalog]
    Backstage --> Templates[Scaffolder Templates]
    Backstage --> TechDocs[TechDocs]
    Backstage --> DB[(PostgreSQL)]
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  1. Developers access the Backstage portal via the web UI.
  2. The software catalog indexes services, libraries, and infrastructure components.
  3. Scaffolder templates let teams create new projects from standardized blueprints.
  4. TechDocs renders markdown documentation alongside the catalog entries.
  5. PostgreSQL stores catalog state, user data, and plugin metadata.

Stack details in this repo

  • Backstage image: backstage/backstage:latest
  • Database image: postgres:16-alpine
  • Container names: backstage, backstage-db
  • Backstage UI: http://<host-ip>:7007
  • PostgreSQL port: 5432 (internal only)

Environment variables

Set via .env (copy from .env.example):

  • BACKSTAGE_PORT (default: 7007)
  • POSTGRES_USER (default: backstage)
  • POSTGRES_PASSWORD (default: changeme)
  • POSTGRES_DB (default: backstage)

How to run

From the repository root:

cd backstage
cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d

Open:

  • Backstage UI: http://localhost:7007

Useful commands:

docker compose ps
docker compose logs -f backstage
docker compose restart
docker compose down

Use it effectively

  • Register services in the software catalog using catalog-info.yaml files in your repos.
  • Create scaffolder templates to standardize new project creation across teams.
  • Enable TechDocs to render markdown docs directly in the portal.
  • Add plugins for CI/CD visibility, Kubernetes, cost management, and more.

Notes

  • Change the default database password before exposing externally.
  • The official image ships with a demo catalog; customize app-config.yaml for your org.
  • For production, mount a custom app-config.production.yaml via volumes.
  • See Backstage docs for full configuration and plugin reference.