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Backstage — a developer portal framework for catalogs, docs, templates, and plugins

OSS scale score 314.3OSS health 100Update pace 510 commits/30d
About these scores

OSS scale score is an unbounded metric that log-compresses and weights Stars, Watchers, Forks, and Contributors. Discovery score is the current OSS scale score minus the score at discovery. Update pace is commits in the last 30 days, growth momentum is the OSS scale score difference within the recent observation window, and OSS health is a 0–100 rating based on available recency, Community Health, and release data.

Stars
34,452
Primary language
TypeScript
License
Apache-2.0
Repository last updated
Sep 19, 2026

Overview

Backstage is a framework for building internal developer portals that unify services, libraries, data systems, websites, documentation, and project creation paths. Created at Spotify, it is now a CNCF Incubating project. It is useful when growing engineering organizations need a consistent way to discover ownership, docs, and approved development workflows.

Features and best fit

Based on official documentation; not hands-on tested · Content checked:

Organize ownership and system metadata with the Software Catalog

Catalog services, libraries, data pipelines, websites, and ML models so teams have one entry point for ownership and related information.

Sources: [2]

Standardize project creation and documentation

Software Templates provide approved project scaffolding, while TechDocs makes repository-managed documentation discoverable from the same portal.

Sources: [2]

For engineering organizations with growing service and tool sprawl

Backstage fits environments where ownership, documentation, and bootstrap procedures are distributed across many systems. Its plugin ecosystem can connect existing infrastructure and development tools.

Sources: [2]

Catalog metadata requires ongoing operational ownership

Deploying the portal does not keep information accurate by itself. Teams need clear processes for maintaining owners, system relationships, documentation, and templates.

Sources: [3]

Official sources

  1. [1]backstage/backstage repository(2026-09-20)
  2. [2]Backstage README(2026-09-20)
  3. [3]Backstage Getting Started(2026-09-20)
Supplemental curator note

Backstage becomes most useful when growing service and tooling sprawl makes ownership, documentation, and project bootstrap paths hard to find. Its value depends as much on maintaining catalog metadata as on deploying the portal itself.

Try it in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Create a standalone app

    Prepare an active LTS version of Node.js and Yarn, then follow the prompts and use a name such as `my-backstage-app`.

    npx @backstage/create-app@latest
  2. 2

    Start the development server

    The command starts the local frontend and backend processes.

    cd my-backstage-app && yarn start
  3. 3

    Open the developer portal

    Explore the demo Software Catalog. The standalone setup uses in-memory SQLite and is intended for evaluation rather than production.

    http://localhost:3000
Check the official README

Growth

Growth trends · Last 30 days

34,452 Stars

Trend data is still being collected.

Development activity

Last 90 days · weekly

Commits (last 30 days)
510
Open PRs
189
Issues opened
291
Issues closed
262
PRs opened
843
PRs merged
638

Issues

291 / 262

Jun 23Sep 20
Issues openedIssues closed

Pull requests

843 / 638

Jun 23Sep 20
PRs openedPRs merged

Maintenance

Median first response
5.2 hr
Issue response rate
13.1% (13/99)

Based on up to the 100 newest issues opened by external users in the last 90 days. A first comment from an OWNER, MEMBER, or COLLABORATOR counts as a response; issues whose full comment history cannot be checked are excluded. The median and response rate update weekly.

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GitHub data

GitHub dataView detailed GitHub data
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GitHub Topics

  • infrastructure
  • dx
  • developer-experience
  • developer-portal
  • microservices
  • cncf
  • backstage
  • self-service-portal
  • hacktoberfest
Stars
34,452
Forks
7,638
Watchers
238
Open issues
245
Contributors
368
Primary language
TypeScript
License
Apache-2.0
Repository last updated
Sep 19, 2026
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