Story (Required)

As a developer interacting with RHDH via an MCP client, I should be able to fetch important metadata about software templates to inform which templates I should use, and how

This story enables AI clients to retrieve comprehensive metadata about specific software templates through MCP tools, providing detailed information about template requirements, parameters, dependencies, and capabilities. The goal is to allow developers to programmatically access template specifications through natural language interactions with AI assistants, helping them understand template requirements and make informed decisions about template usage.

Background (Required)

Backstage Software Templates contain rich metadata including input parameters, required variables, dependencies, supported technologies, and step-by-step execution workflows, as described in the [Backstage Software Templates documentation](https://backstage.io/docs/features/software-templates/). Each template defines specific input requirements, optional parameters, and output specifications that developers need to understand before using the template for project creation. While the listing functionality helps discover available templates, developers need access to detailed metadata to understand template requirements, dependencies, and configuration options to effectively utilize templates for their specific use cases.

Out of scope

Template execution or project creation, template modification or creation, parameter validation beyond metadata inspection, template testing or dry-run capabilities, integration with external template repositories, template performance analysis

Approach (Required)

1. Create MCP tool as an Action registered in the ActionRegistry, as outlined in https://github.com/backstage/backstage/tree/master/plugins/mcp-actions-backend
2. Implement detailed template metadata retrieval using Backstage Templates API
3. Support metadata retrieval by template name, ID, or reference
4. Format response data optimally for MCP client consumption and parameter analysis
5. Include comprehensive template information: input parameters, required fields, optional configurations
6. Provide template parameters, dependencies, and execution workflow details
7. Provide template capability descriptions and supported output formats
8. Include template techdocs, where available (might depend on the status RHDHPAI-1014)

Dependencies

Backstage Software Templates API access, MCP server implementation, ActionRegistry integration, understanding of template schema definitions and parameter structures

Acceptance Criteria (Required)

1. MCP tool successfully retrieves detailed metadata for specified software templates
2. Response includes complete input parameter definitions with types, requirements, and descriptions
3. Tool provides template execution workflow information
4. Template dependencies and required integrations clearly documented in response
5. Parameter schema information included for validation and input preparation
6. MCP tool registered in ActionRegistry and discoverable by AI clients
7. Evaluation data with known-good questions and responses for the MCP tool

(✓) documentation updates (design docs, release notes etc)
(✓) demo needed
SOP required
education module update (Filled by RHDHPAI team only)
R&D label required (Filled by RHDHPAI team only)

Done Checklist

Code is completed, reviewed, documented and checked in
Unit and integration test automation have been delivered and running cleanly in continuous integration/staging/canary environment
Continuous Delivery pipeline(s) is able to proceed with new code included
Customer facing documentation, API docs, design docs etc. are produced/updated, reviewed and published
Acceptance criteria are met
If the Grafana dashboard is updated, ensure the corresponding SOP is updated as well