In the previous post, we looked at what Tech Insights is and why it is useful. Now let’s get it running.

This post walks through the backend installation and configuration of the Tech Insights plugin.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

  • Node.js and Yarn installed
  • A working Backstage instance and codebase
  • Access to the Backstage backend and frontend source code

If you do not have a Backstage instance yet, the official getting started guide is the best place to begin.

Step 1: Install the backend plugin

The Tech Insights backend is responsible for running fact retrievers, storing facts, and evaluating checks.

Install it in your backend package by running following command from backstage root directory:

yarn --cwd packages/backend add @backstage-community/plugin-tech-insights-backend

Step 2: Configure the backend plugin

In your backend, you need to register the Tech Insights backend plugin. With the new Backstage backend system, add it to your packages/backend/src/index.ts:

backend.add(import('@backstage-community/plugin-tech-insights-backend'));

This registers the core Tech Insights backend. In the next post, we will install the module that provides the three built-in fact retrievers and configure them in app-config.yaml.

Step 3: Configure the database

Tech Insights stores facts in a database. If your Backstage instance already uses PostgreSQL (which is recommended for production), Tech Insights will use the same database connection.

No additional database configuration is needed beyond what Backstage already uses. The plugin creates its own tables automatically on startup.

If you are running SQLite for local development, that works too, but PostgreSQL is strongly recommended for anything beyond local testing.

As per standard backstage practice where it creates database called backstage_plugin_<plugin-name>

For tech-insights, it will be backstage_plugin_tech-insights this is important if you want troubleshoot anything.

mydb=# \l
                                                           List of databases
              Name              | Owner | Encoding | Locale Provider |  Collate   |   Ctype    | Locale | ICU Rules | Access privileges
--------------------------------+-------+----------+-----------------+------------+------------+--------+-----------+-------------------
 backstage_plugin_app           | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 backstage_plugin_auth          | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 backstage_plugin_catalog       | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 backstage_plugin_kubernetes    | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 backstage_plugin_notifications | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 backstage_plugin_permission    | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 backstage_plugin_proxy         | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 backstage_plugin_scaffolder    | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 backstage_plugin_search        | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 backstage_plugin_signals       | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 backstage_plugin_tech-insights | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 backstage_plugin_techdocs      | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 mydb                           | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 postgres                       | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           |
 template0                      | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           | =c/root          +
                                |       |          |                 |            |            |        |           | root=CTc/root
 template1                      | root  | UTF8     | libc            | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |        |           | =c/root          +
                                |       |          |                 |            |            |        |           | root=CTc/root
(16 rows)

A note on the module system

The package we just installed (plugin-tech-insights-backend) is the core framework. It handles scheduling, storage, and the API layer. But the actual fact retrievers and check engine come from a separate module, which we will install in the next post.

This modular design means you can also write your own modules for custom fact retrieval and check logic, which we will cover later in this series.

What is next?

The backend is ready. In the next post, we will install the built-in fact retrievers module and configure it to start collecting data about your entities.