Backstage 1.21: Developer Portal Evolution

Introduction

Backstage 1.21, released on September 30, 2024, advances developer portal capabilities with improved features, enhanced plugin ecosystem, better performance, and expanded integration options. This release makes Backstage more powerful for improving developer experience.

Portal Capabilities

• Service catalog improvements provide better service discovery and management.
• Documentation enhancements enable better documentation management.
• Software templates improvements enable better software template management.
• TechDocs enhancements provide better technical documentation capabilities.

Plugin Ecosystem

1. Plugin development improvements enable easier plugin development.
2. Plugin marketplace enhancements provide better plugin discovery.
3. Plugin integration improvements enable better plugin integration.
4. Custom plugins enable creation of custom plugins for specific needs.

Performance Optimizations

• Page load time reductions minimize time to load portal pages.
• Search performance improvements enable faster search results.
• Resource usage optimizations reduce CPU and memory consumption.
• Caching improvements provide better response times.

Integration Options

• Kubernetes integration improvements provide seamless integration with Kubernetes.
• CI/CD integration enables integration with CI/CD pipelines.
• Git integration enables integration with Git repositories.
• API improvements enable better programmatic access to Backstage capabilities.

Getting Started

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

Summary

Backstage 1.21 continues to evolve as a leading developer portal, providing teams with powerful capabilities for improving developer experience.