Getting Started
There are two different ways to get started with Backstage:
- Recommended: Create a standalone app
- Contributors: Clone the Backstage repository
Creating a standalone app makes it simpler to customize the application for your
needs and stay up to date with the project. You will depend on @backstage
packages from npm, making your app much smaller. This is the recommended
approach for most installations.
If you want to contribute plugins or to the project in general, it's easier to
fork and clone the repository. The @backstage packages will be included in the
clone. That will let you stay up to date with the latest changes, and give you
an easier path to make Pull Requests.
Create your Backstage App
Backstage provides the @backstage/create-app package to scaffold standalone
instances of Backstage. You will need to have
Node.js Active LTS Release installed
(currently v14), Yarn and
Python (although you likely have it
already). You will also need to have
Docker installed to use some features
like Software Templates and TechDocs.
Using npx you can then run the following to create an app in a chosen
subdirectory of your current working directory:
npx @backstage/create-app
You will be taken through a wizard to create your app. You can read more about this process in Create an app.
Contributing to Backstage
If you intend to make changes to the core project's packages, certain plugins, or project documentation, then you can fork and clone https://github.com/backstage/backstage.
This will let you run the latest code off of the master branch, fix bugs or
contribute new features, run test suites, etc.
You can read more in our CONTRIBUTING guide, which can help you get setup with a Backstage development environment.