Feature Overview (aka. Goal Summary)

Architecture Design Doc

• Implement an automated distribution pipeline for RHDH plugins that handles building, storing, and managing plugins while maintaining plugin metadata in the Backstage catalog

Goals (aka. expected user outcomes)

• Plugin developers can publish their plugins through an automated process
• RHDH administrators can add plugins to the backstage catalog
• Plugin metadata is consistently maintained and accessible throughout the distribution lifecycle
• Support for air-gapped environments

Requirements (aka. Acceptance Criteria):

1. Plugin Code Repository Integration
   • Support multiple source repositories (Community, Red Hat, Partner)
   • Trigger builds automatically on release
   • metadata can be in catalog format, but could still be the package.json format
2. Dynamic Plugin Build Repository
   • Realease of a plugin in npm triggers a build, via watching the code repository
   • Build container images and push to a registry
   • Update catalog metadata with additional information
3. Registry Integration (shared with Frontend team)
   • Support multiple container registry providers
   • Embed basic plugin metadata in container images
   • Only use common registry API calls (Frotend)
4. Catalog Integration
   • Store all plugin metadata in a dedicated git repository using the catalog format  (there will be a catalog ingestion that reads metadata directly from images)
   • update catalog entries after successful plugin builds
   • Support metadata versioning through git history
   • Enable plugin discovery and filtering through catalog API

Out of Scope

• UI components for the marketplace
• Plugin installation mechanics

Customer Considerations

• Air-gapped environments must be fully supported

Potential Epics

• Epic: Plugin Build & Release Pipeline Setup
• Epic: Container Registry Integration
• Epic: Plugin Metadata Schema & Evolution Management
• Epic: Automated Catalog Updates