Backstage 0.1: Spotify’s Developer Portal Goes Open Source

Introduction

On March 16, 2020, Spotify open-sourced Backstage 0.1, the internal developer portal that powers its engineering productivity. Backstage provides plug-and-play service catalogs, documentation, and Kubernetes tooling under a cohesive UI.

Service Catalog Core

YAML-based component descriptors (catalog-info.yaml) capture ownership, lifecycle, and deployment metadata.
Catalog UI surfaces APIs, websites, libraries, and data pipelines with search and tagging.
Ownership metadata integrates with GitHub, GitLab, and LDAP for accurate team accountability.

Plugin Ecosystem

Kubernetes Plugin: Visualize live workloads, pod status, and rollout history without leaving the portal.
TechDocs: Render Markdown or MkDocs documentation alongside the catalog entry, keeping runbooks close to services.
CI/CD Integrations: Jenkins, GitHub Actions, and CircleCI plugins display pipeline status and build artifacts inline.

Platform Extensibility

React-based frontend and Node.js backend expose APIs for custom plugins and branding.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and scaffolder templates create consistent golden paths for new services.
GraphQL API enables embedding Backstage data into chatops or executive dashboards.

Getting Started

npx @backstage/create-app
cd my-backstage-app
yarn dev

apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: payments-api
  description: Handles payment workflows
spec:
  type: service
  lifecycle: production
  owner: payments-team

Summary

Aspect	Details
Release Date	March 16, 2020
Headline Features	Service catalog, plugin system, Kubernetes integration
Why it Matters	Gives platform teams a blueprint for developer portals that unify tooling and documentation

Backstage 0.1 invites the community to build shared developer experiences, bridging the gap between code, infrastructure, and operations.