Watch live on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/sr2zqmtfBLY
Bookmark the link now. Land early Jul 15 and you'll see the countdown / waiting room.
What You'll See Live
Sam runs three labs from the academy's Backstage 101: Internal Developer Portal Fundamentals course. No slides, just terminal, IDE, and live commentary.
We'll build a working Internal Developer Portal end to end:
- Local Backstage Setup, install Node.js + Yarn, scaffold a new Backstage app via the CLI, start the dev server, tour the project structure and config files
- Basic Catalog, model your org as Backstage entities: Groups, Users, Components, APIs, and the relationships between them. Register them and see the relationship graph render
- Build Your First Template, create a Software Template using the Scaffolder. Define template metadata, build the user input form, write the skeleton, define scaffolding steps for Git integration, and auto-register the new service in the catalog. Submit the form live, see a new repo created, and watch it appear in the catalog
That's the full self-service loop in one session.
What This Is Not
- Not custom React plugin development (separate Simple Plugin / K8s Plugin labs)
- Not TechDocs setup (separate TechDocs lab)
- Not Keycloak / GitHub OAuth (separate auth integration lab)
- Not Backstage on Kubernetes / production GitOps (separate K8s and GitOps labs)
- Not Jenkins integration (separate Jenkins lab)
If you want any of those topics, the full Backstage 101 course covers them in dedicated labs.
Who This Is For
- Platform engineers building Internal Developer Portals
- Teams evaluating Backstage vs Port vs Cortex
- Anyone wanting to see Backstage's Scaffolder turn a form submission into a running service
Format
- 45 min live demo
- 15 min open Q&A, ask anything
- Streamed on YouTube Live
- Link emailed after registration
When
Wednesday, July 15, 2026 · 12:00 PM ET (16:00 UTC)
Calendar invite (.ics) sent on registration.
Can't make it live? Register anyway and get the recording.
Related: Backstage 101, full course covering local setup, catalog entities, permissions, Docker deployment, Software Templates, TechDocs, automated discovery, Jenkins integration, Keycloak auth, Kubernetes plugin and deployment, custom plugins, and production GitOps.