Backstage Has a Free API: Developer Portal Platform by Spotify

#devops #developer #platform #opensource

Backstage is an open platform for building developer portals. Originally built at Spotify, it unifies all your infrastructure, services, documentation, and tools into a single, consistent interface.

What Is Backstage?

Backstage is a CNCF incubating project that provides a framework for building developer portals. It includes a software catalog, TechDocs, templates for scaffolding new projects, and a plugin architecture with 100+ community plugins.

Key Features:

Software Catalog (all services in one place)
TechDocs (docs-as-code)
Software Templates (scaffold new projects)
Kubernetes integration
CI/CD visibility
API documentation
Search across all resources
100+ plugins

Quick Start

# Create a new Backstage app
npx @backstage/create-app@latest
cd my-backstage-app

# Start development server
yarn dev
# Catalog at http://localhost:3000
# API at http://localhost:7007

Software Catalog

# catalog-info.yaml (add to any repo)
apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: order-service
  description: Handles order processing and payments
  annotations:
    github.com/project-slug: myorg/order-service
    backstage.io/techdocs-ref: dir:.
  tags:
    - python
    - grpc
  links:
    - url: https://grafana.example.com/d/orders
      title: Grafana Dashboard
spec:
  type: service
  lifecycle: production
  owner: team-backend
  system: e-commerce
  dependsOn:
    - component:payment-gateway
    - resource:orders-db
  providesApis:
    - order-api

Backstage REST API

import requests

BACKSTAGE = "http://localhost:7007/api"

# Get all entities from catalog
entities = requests.get(f"{BACKSTAGE}/catalog/entities").json()
for entity in entities[:10]:
    kind = entity["kind"]
    name = entity["metadata"]["name"]
    print(f"[{kind}] {name}")

# Search catalog
results = requests.get(f"{BACKSTAGE}/catalog/entities", params={
    "filter": "kind=Component,spec.type=service"
}).json()
for svc in results:
    owner = svc["spec"].get("owner", "unknown")
    lifecycle = svc["spec"].get("lifecycle", "unknown")
    print(f"Service: {svc['metadata']['name']}, Owner: {owner}, Lifecycle: {lifecycle}")

# Get specific entity
entity = requests.get(f"{BACKSTAGE}/catalog/entities/by-name/Component/default/order-service").json()
print(f"Name: {entity['metadata']['name']}")
print(f"Description: {entity['metadata'].get('description', '')}")
print(f"Owner: {entity['spec']['owner']}")

# Search
search_results = requests.get(f"{BACKSTAGE}/search/query", params={
    "term": "order",
    "types[0]": "software-catalog"
}).json()
for r in search_results["results"]:
    print(f"Found: {r['document']['title']} ({r['document']['kind']})")

Software Templates

# template.yaml
apiVersion: scaffolder.backstage.io/v1beta3
kind: Template
metadata:
  name: microservice-template
  title: Create a Microservice
  description: Scaffold a new microservice with CI/CD
spec:
  owner: platform-team
  type: service
  parameters:
    - title: Service Info
      properties:
        name:
          title: Service Name
          type: string
        description:
          title: Description
          type: string
        language:
          title: Language
          type: string
          enum: [python, go, typescript]
  steps:
    - id: fetch
      name: Fetch Template
      action: fetch:template
      input:
        url: ./skeleton
        values:
          name: ${{ parameters.name }}
    - id: publish
      name: Publish to GitHub
      action: publish:github
      input:
        repoUrl: github.com?owner=myorg&repo=${{ parameters.name }}
    - id: register
      name: Register in Catalog
      action: catalog:register
      input:
        repoContentsUrl: ${{ steps.publish.output.repoContentsUrl }}
        catalogInfoPath: /catalog-info.yaml

Resources

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