backstage/community-plugins

Backstage Community Plugins is a repository hosting framework that enables community members to develop, maintain, and share plugins for the Backstage developer portal platform.

The repository addresses the challenge of managing plugin development outside the core Backstage codebase. It provides plugin maintainers with standardized tools, workflows, and release processes to efficiently publish and maintain their plugins. The architecture organizes plugins into topic-based workspaces, each with isolated releases and changesets, allowing plugins to depend on one another through standard npm dependencies regardless of whether they are core plugins, community plugins, or external packages. Workspaces are designed to be portable enough to migrate to independent repositories if needed.

Contributors should choose this repository if they want to leverage established community processes and collective knowledge rather than managing plugin development independently. It suits plugins that enhance Backstage functionality but are not essential to core platform operation. Self-hosting remains a valid alternative for those seeking full autonomy over their plugin's development and release lifecycle. Plugins critical to Backstage's fundamental functionality continue to reside in the main backstage repository to ensure central management of core components.

The project maintains active community engagement through structured contribution guidelines and a formal proposal process for new plugins. Development follows a changeset-based workflow where new changes trigger automated version and changelog updates, with merged version pull requests triggering releases across affected workspaces. The repository includes comprehensive documentation covering plugin ownership, package details, contribution procedures, and workspace setup guidance.