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running-backstage-locally
Running Backstage Locally
Documentation on How to run Backstage Locally

To develop a plugin or contribute to the Backstage project, we recommend cloning the Backstage repository and running locally in development mode. If you are not trying to contribute, follow the instructions to Create an App instead.

Prerequisites

  • Node.js

First make sure you are using Node.js with an Active LTS Release. This is made easy with a version manager such as nvm which allows for version switching.

# Installing current LTS release
nvm install --lts
> Installing latest LTS version.
> Downloading and installing node v16.16.0...
> Now using node v16.16.0 (npm v8.11.0)

# Checking your version
node --version
> v16.16.0
  • Yarn

Please refer to the installation instructions for Yarn.

  • Docker

We use Docker for few of our core features. So, you will need Docker installed locally to use features like Software Templates and TechDocs. Please refer to the installation instructions for Docker.

Clone and Install

To get up and running with a local Backstage to evaluate it, let's clone it off of GitHub and run an initial install.

# Start from your local development folder
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/backstage/backstage.git
cd backstage

# Install our dependencies
yarn install

Phew! Now you have a local repository that's ready to run and to add any open source contributions into.

We are now going to launch two things: an example Backstage frontend app, and an example Backstage backend that the frontend talks to. These can both be launched through the following command:

# From your Backstage root directory, launches both the frontend and backend
yarn dev

If you prefer to run the frontend and backend separately, you can instead use yarn start and yarn start-backend in two separate terminal windows.

Which ever way you choose, you will now have a backend instance running on port 7007, and the frontend running on port 3000. A browser window should also automatically open, showing the frontend.

Authentication

When Backstage starts, you can choose to enter as a Guest user and start exploring.

But you can also set up any of the available authentication methods. The easiest option will be GitHub. To setup GitHub authentication in Backstage, see these instructions.

Congratulations! That should be it. Let us know how it went on discord, file issues for any feature or plugin suggestions, or bugs you have, and feel free to contribute!

Creating a Plugin

The value of Backstage grows with every new plugin that gets added. Here is a collection of tutorials that will guide you through setting up and extending an instance of Backstage with your own plugins.