Onboarding Software to Backstage

Registering a component in Backstage

To register the component, first make sure that Backstage is able to read from the source control system where you saved the metadata file. This is done by configuring an integration, as shown in an earlier tutorial Standing up Backstage.

With your Backstage instance started up locally, navigate to http://localhost:3000/create and click the Register Existing Component button in the top-right corner.

Paste the URL to the catalog-info.yaml file into the Repository URL field and click Analyze to start the process of registering your component.

Backstage should then load, parse, and present your entity to you for final review. There will also be a location entity shown representing this URL in the catalog. One last click on Import should complete the registration process.

Now, if you navigate to the catalog home and click the All filter in the left-hand shelf, your entity appears in the list, and clicking on it leads to its page!

💡 Manual registration is the simplest to show, but you can also use component discovery to scan a source control system. Software Templates can also register new components in the catalog automatically.