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In this lesson, we’ll dive into Backstage’s powerful search capabilities. Backstage offers a single place for developers to discover everything—your service catalog, component documentation, and even external resources like Confluence or Stack Exchange. By configuring Backstage’s collators and search backends, you can tailor the search experience to fit your organization’s needs.
The image highlights the main benefit of a search feature in Backstage, stating that all documentation will be searchable and centralized in one location. It includes a stylized "B" logo and icons representing documents and settings.

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Unified Search Interface

Backstage’s built-in search lets you query across services, APIs, and docs—all from one place. Even if you’re not sure where something lives in your infrastructure, a quick search will surface the right component or guide.
The image shows a stylized "B" logo with a search interface, including options for "Search," "Catalog," and "Docs."

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Extending Search with Plugins

Beyond out-of-the-box catalog and docs indexing, you can add collators for external tools. Index your Confluence pages, Stack Exchange threads, or any web-based resource.
The image shows a stylized "B" logo with a layered design, accompanied by the words "Plugin," "Confluence," and "Stack Exchange" with their respective icons. The word "Search" is displayed in the top left corner.

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Search Engine Options

Backstage supports multiple search backends. By default, it uses Lunr, but you can also connect to Postgres or Elasticsearch.
EngineDefaultScalabilityTypical Use Case
Lunr✓LowSmall to mid-size deployments
PostgreSQLMediumTeams already standardizing on Postgres
ElasticsearchHighLarge-scale or global search clusters
Switching backends is straightforward and lets you match search performance to your infrastructure scale.
The image is a diagram showing three search engine options: Lunr Search, Postgres, and Elastic Search, with Lunr Search marked as the default.

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Configuring What Gets Indexed

The collator system controls which resources are crawled and how often. Out of the box, Backstage includes collators for:
  • Service Catalog
  • Built-in documentation
You can define additional collators for Confluence, Stack Exchange, or any REST API. Schedule each collator independently—for example:
SourceInterval
Catalog30 minutes
Docs1 hour
Confluence6 hours
Stack Exchange2 days
Frequent indexing keeps your search results fresh, but be mindful of API rate limits and server load.
The image is a diagram illustrating a scheduler system that collects indexes from various sources like Catalog, Docs, Confluence, and Stack Exchange at different intervals (30 mins, 1 hr, 6 hrs, 2 days).

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Adding Elasticsearch as Your Search Backend

If you need enterprise-grade search, switch from Lunr to Elasticsearch:

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1. Install the Elasticsearch module

yarn --cwd packages/backend add @backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-elasticsearch

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2. Register the Elasticsearch plugin in your backend

import { createBackend } from '@backstage/backend-app-api';

async function main() {
  const backend = createBackend();

  backend.add(
    await import('@backstage/plugin-search-backend'),
  );
  backend.add(
    await import('@backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-elasticsearch'),
  );

  await backend.start();
}

main().catch(console.error);

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3. Configure the connection in app-config.yaml

search:
  elasticsearch:
    provider: opensearch
    node: http://0.0.0.0:9200
    auth:
      username: opensearch
      password: changeme
Ensure your Elasticsearch credentials are secured and never committed to version control. Consider using secrets management or environment variables.

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