Backstage Software Templates (Internal)

7KGroup Maintainers Only

The Backstage instance is only accessible to 7KGroup representatives. Community members request new charts by opening a Chart Request issue on GitHub.

Hiroba uses Backstage Software Templates internally to scaffold new application repositories when a chart request is approved.

How It Works

1. A community member opens a Chart Request issue on GitHub
2. A 7KGroup maintainer reviews, evaluates and approves the request
3. The maintainer opens the Backstage portal and selects "Application Template"
4. They fill in parameters based on the issue:
   • Application info — name, description
   • Deployment config — container port, ingress hostname
   • Platform dependencies — toggle Postgres, S3, Keycloak, etc
   • Repository — where to publish on GitHub
5. Backstage scaffolds the repo:
   • Fetches the skeleton and renders ${{ values.* }} placeholders
   • Publishes to GitHub
   • Registers the new component in the Backstage catalog
6. The maintainer links the new repo back to the original issue

Template Structure

templates/app-template/
├── template.yaml           # Backstage template definition
└── skeleton/               # Files that get scaffolded
    ├── README.md
    ├── Dockerfile
    ├── catalog-info.yaml   # Backstage catalog entry
    ├── mkdocs.yml          # TechDocs config
    ├── helm/
    │   ├── base/           # Standard k8s Helm chart
    │   └── platform/       # Platform dependencies chart
    ├── crossplane/         # App-specific XRDs & Compositions
    ├── docs/               # Documentation
    └── .github/workflows/  # CI/CD referencing workflow-library

Template Parameters

The template.yaml defines four parameter groups:

Group	Fields	Purpose
Application Info	name, description, owner	Identity and ownership
Deployment Config	port, enableIngress, hostname	How the app is exposed
Platform Dependencies	enablePostgres, enableS3, enableKeycloak	What infra to provision
Repository	repoUrl	Where to publish

CI/CD Integration

Scaffolded workflows reference the centralized 7K-Hiroba/workflows-library:

jobs:
  build:
    uses: 7K-Hiroba/workflows-library/.github/workflows/build.yml@v1
    with:
      image-name: ghcr.io/7kgroup/my-app
    secrets: inherit

This ensures all applications share consistent build, test, and release pipelines.