Backstage.io - Architecture

Introduction

• Backstage uses a three-layers model to explain how a Developer Portal is built using its framework.

Core

• This is what the Backstage team maintains and releases as open source.
• Unless you want to contribute to the project, you may not need to wrap your head around this piece from the beginning.

App

• This app is the Developer Portal that you’ll make available to your developers.
• While adopting Backstage, you’ll be interacting the most with this piece.

Plugins

• To extend your instance’s functionality, you can install plugins into it.
• Even basic functionality is abstracted as plugins, including the Catalog. So you’ll always be working with a handful of plugins.
• There are a few dozen community plugins available to integrate popular services. And you can create your own.