Learn Backstage - Pre-Requisites Skill & Setup Environment

#Introduction

Welcome to the first episode of the Learn Backstage series! This series invites you to dive into Backstage, an open-source Internal Developer Platform (IDP) originally built by Spotify to manage thousands of internal services, and later donated to CNCF. With Backstage, organizations get a single software catalog, self-service templates for creating new services, centralized documentation through TechDocs, and a search engine that ties it all together.

Throughout this series you will learn everything from the core architectural concepts, installation and bootstrap, the software catalog, catalog ingestion, scaffolder, TechDocs, all the way to authentication. But before all that, episode 0 is the gateway: you'll prepare the basic skills and software that must be present on your machine.

#Basic Skills You Must Have

Backstage isn't an application you set up by simply clicking around. You'll be dealing with the command line, YAML configuration files, and TypeScript code. There are a few groups of basic skills that will make your journey much smoother:

• Node.js, Yarn, and the npm registry — the runtime and package management foundation.
• Basic TypeScript and React — the language and framework behind the Backstage frontend.
• Git with a CI/CD workflow — Backstage lives on repositories, branches, and pipelines.
• Monorepo concepts — Backstage itself is a large monorepo built on workspaces.
• Container and Kubernetes basics — to understand how Backstage is deployed and how TechDocs is previewed.

You don't need to master every skill completely. Understand the concepts; you'll learn the rest as you go.

#Node.js, Yarn, and the npm Registry

Backstage is built on the Node.js ecosystem. Its backend runs on Node, and almost all of its tooling comes as npm packages. That's why you must install Node.js version 20 LTS or newer. Make sure that version is installed, because every following episode assumes this runtime.

For package management, Backstage uses Yarn v4, which can be enabled via Corepack — a built-in Node.js utility. The npm registry still serves as the package source, but Yarn is what manages the monorepo workspace.

#Basic TypeScript and React

The Backstage frontend is built with React, and almost all plugin APIs use TypeScript. You don't need to be an expert — just understand components, props, simple hooks, and basic TypeScript types. With that foundation, you'll be able to read the code generated by create-app and start contributing to plugins.

#Git and CI/CD Workflow

Backstage is a portal that mirrors the entire software lifecycle. Catalog, templates, and documentation are all driven through Git. You need to be comfortable with commits, branches, pull requests, and reviews. A basic understanding of CI/CD pipelines also helps, because Backstage often connects to tools like GitHub Actions for automation.

#Monorepo Concepts: Workspaces and Packages

Backstage brings together many packages in a single large repository. This concept is called a monorepo. To understand why Backstage chose this pattern, compare it with the multi-repo approach:

In a monorepo, you'll come across the terms workspaces — a set of packages managed together in one repository — and packages, units of code that can be built, tested, and published independently. Backstage uses Yarn workspaces to manage both.

#Container and Kubernetes Basics

A production-grade Backstage is usually deployed as a container to Kubernetes. On top of that, Docker is also used to preview TechDocs in later episodes. You don't have to master Kubernetes in this episode, but understanding images, containers, pods, and deployments will help a great deal when you learn Backstage deployment later.

#Software to Prepare

Once you understand the skills, it's time to prepare the software. Here's a summary of what must be installed:

#Node.js 20+ LTS

Install Node.js version 20 LTS or newer. You can use the official installer from the Node.js website or a version manager like nvm. Once installed, verify the version in your terminal.

#Yarn 4 with Corepack

Corepack is a utility bundled with Node.js that can enable Yarn without a separate global installation. Just run corepack enable once, and the yarn command becomes available immediately, letting Backstage use the Yarn 4 version it needs.

#Docker for TechDocs Preview

Docker is used when you run a local TechDocs preview. Make sure the Docker daemon is running and you can run a basic container. In the TechDocs episode later, Docker will provide a consistent documentation build environment without cluttering your machine.

#GitHub Account and Personal Access Token

GitHub is home to your repositories. For Backstage integrations with GitHub — for example when create-app wants to create a repository, scaffolder publishes a template, or the catalog discovers entities — you'll need a Personal Access Token (PAT). Store the token securely and give it the smallest scope that meets your needs.

#VS Code as Your IDE

VS Code is the most popular IDE choice in the Backstage ecosystem. Install the TypeScript, ESLint, and Prettier extensions so the writing experience stays comfortable. Backstage generates a lot of files, and a good IDE helps you navigate them.

#Verifying the Installation

Before continuing to the next episode, verify that everything is installed correctly by running the following commands in your terminal:

node --version
npm --version
corepack enable
yarn --version
git --version
docker --version

If everything runs, you'll see each version: Node above 20.x, Yarn at 4.x, plus Git and Docker installed. corepack enable only needs to be run once; after that, the yarn command is always available. If something errors, resolve it before moving on — a tidy foundation saves a lot of time in episode 3.

#Conclusion

In this episode 0, you prepared two things at once: basic skills (Node.js, Yarn, npm registry, TypeScript, React, Git, CI/CD, monorepo, containers, and Kubernetes) and supporting software (Node.js 20+, Yarn 4, Docker, a GitHub account with a PAT, and VS Code). All of these are mandatory prerequisites before you start building Backstage.

The key takeaways:

• Node.js 20 LTS or newer is the foundation of the entire Backstage ecosystem.
• Yarn 4 enabled via Corepack — just run corepack enable once.
• Monorepo, workspace, and package concepts are key to reading Backstage's structure.
• Docker and a GitHub PAT are used for integrations that appear in later episodes.

In the next episode, episode 1, we step back from code for a moment: you'll understand Backstage's history and background — how platform engineering evolved from the DevOps era, the discoverability problems that gave rise to developer portals, and why Backstage became the industry's de facto standard.