KodeKloud Notes

Backstage integrations enable you to publish data to or fetch data from third-party services—such as GitHub, GitLab, S3 buckets, and LDAP—automating workflows and centralizing metadata across your toolchain.

Below is an overview of common Backstage integrations:

Integration Type	Primary Use Case	Configuration Example
GitHub	Load component entities from repos	`integrations.github.token: ${GITHUB_TOKEN}`
S3 Bucket	Scan buckets for entity definitions	Custom Entity Provider setup
GitLab	Ingest entities from GitLab projects	`integrations.gitlab.token: ${GITLAB_TOKEN}`
LDAP	Sync users, teams, and groups	`integrations.ldap.serverUrl: ldap://...`

The image is a diagram showing integrations between Backstage and various services like GitHub, GitLab, S3 Bucket, and LDAP, with an integration component in the center.

1. Loading Entities from Source Control

Backstage treats each component definition and metadata file—referred to as an “entity”—as code. It reads these Entity.yaml files directly from your Git repositories. Public GitHub repositories work out of the box, but private repos require authentication:

integrations:
  github:
    - host: github.com
      token: ${GITHUB_TOKEN}

With this token configured, Backstage can pull Entity.yaml or any other catalog files from private GitHub repositories and ingest them into your service catalog.

Warning

Be sure to store your ${GITHUB_TOKEN} securely (for example, in your CI/CD secret store) and grant it only the minimum scopes needed (typically repo and read:org).

The image illustrates an integration process for loading entities, showing a connection between Backstage and a public GitHub repository using an "Entity.yaml" file.

2. Dynamic Discovery with Entity Providers

Maintaining a manual list of every repository is error-prone at scale. Entity Providers automate this process by scanning entire GitHub organizations or S3 buckets for entity definitions (e.g., Entity.yaml). When new files appear, Backstage ingests them automatically, ensuring your catalog remains up to date with minimal maintenance.

Note

Entity Providers support multiple backends. Besides GitHub and S3, you can implement custom providers to scan cloud storage, file shares, or other APIs.

The image illustrates a diagram of integrations for dynamic discovery with entity providers, showing YAML files and folders connected to Backstage, with icons representing GitHub and a storage bucket.

3. Loading Organizational Data

To synchronize users, teams, and groups, Backstage integrates with external identity systems. For instance, the GitHub Organizations integration fetches members and team structures automatically. You can also connect to LDAP servers, Auth0, or custom HR systems to keep your Backstage catalog aligned with your company directory.

The image illustrates an integration between Backstage and GitHub, focusing on organizational data such as organization, users, and groups.

Backstage also supports a wide range of additional integrations—GitLab, Bitbucket, cloud storage providers, and more—so you can centralize metadata, entity definitions, and organizational information all in one developer portal.

Links and References

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