Learn Internal Developer Platforms: golden paths, Backstage software catalog, scaffolder templates, and tech radar.
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What is an Internal Developer Platform (IDP)?
IDP: platform engineering builds IDPs to reduce cognitive load on product developers. Instead of each team reinventing infrastructure patterns, the platform exposes curated, opinionated workflows — through a portal, CLI, or API — that encode best practices for security, observability, and compliance.
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What is a golden path in platform engineering?
Golden path: a golden path for a new microservice might include a repository template with CI/CD, observability wiring, and security scanning pre-configured. Developers who follow it get production-readiness for free. Spotify popularised the concept with their Backstage platform.
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What is the Backstage software catalog?
Backstage catalog: each service has a catalog-info.yaml in its repo describing its type, owner, dependencies, and links. Backstage ingests these to build a searchable graph of the entire software estate. Teams use it to find API owners, trace dependencies during incidents, and discover reusable services.
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What does the Backstage scaffolder do?
Scaffolder: a scaffolder template defines steps using actions (fetch:template, publish:github, catalog:register). A developer selects a template, fills in a name and owner, and Backstage creates the repository from a cookiecutter-style template, sets up CI/CD, and registers it — all in one workflow.
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What is a tech radar in the context of platform engineering?
Tech radar: pioneered by ThoughtWorks, the radar surfaces which technologies the organisation endorses (Adopt), is evaluating (Trial/Assess), or discourages (Hold). Backstage ships a TechRadar plugin. It prevents fragmentation where every team adopts different observability tools or message brokers.