Available Actions

Actions are functions registered in the scaffolder backend. You invoke them by id inside a template step. This page lists the 16 actions on a default install, all built into @backstage/plugin-scaffolder-backend.

Each action's input schema appears at /create/actions in the portal and through GET /api/scaffolder/v2/actions; module versions can change an action's inputs, and the installed regex:replace takes regExps entries.

Action ID	What it does
catalog:annotate	Annotates an entity object with labels, annotations, and spec properties
catalog:fetch	Returns entities from the catalog by entity reference
catalog:register	Registers entities from a workspace catalog descriptor file into the catalog
catalog:scaffolded-from	Records the template entity reference in catalog-info.yaml
catalog:template:version	Records the template version in catalog-info.yaml
catalog:timestamping	Annotates scaffolded entities with a creation timestamp
catalog:write	Writes a catalog-info.yaml file for a template
debug:log	Writes a message into the log, optionally listing workspace files
debug:wait	Waits for a period of time
fetch:plain	Downloads a directory into the workspace without templating
fetch:plain:file	Downloads a single file into the workspace without templating
fetch:template	Downloads a skeleton directory, rendering variables into file names and content
fetch:template:file	Downloads a single file, rendering variables into its content
fs:delete	Deletes files and directories from the workspace
fs:readdir	Reads files and directories from the workspace
fs:rename	Renames files and directories within the workspace

None of the 16 publishes to a repository. Publish and SCM actions come from Marketplace scaffolder modules: github-scaffolder-actions, gitlab-scaffolder-actions, azure-scaffolder-actions, bitbucket-cloud-scaffolder-actions, bitbucket-server-scaffolder-actions, and gerrit-scaffolder-actions. Until such a module is installed, templates compose workspace files and catalog entries only.

See the live set

To see every action your portal currently has, open /create/actions in your DevPortal URL. Modules you install add to this list.

You can also query the scaffolder API with a signed-in token:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" http://localhost:7007/api/scaffolder/v2/actions

Installing a scaffolder module adds actions

Installing a scaffolder module through Marketplace or configuration extends the table above. The regex module adds regex:replace. The Roadie utilities module adds these 13 action IDs:

• roadiehq:utils:fs:append
• roadiehq:utils:fs:parse
• roadiehq:utils:fs:replace
• roadiehq:utils:fs:write
• roadiehq:utils:json:merge
• roadiehq:utils:jsonata
• roadiehq:utils:jsonata:json:transform
• roadiehq:utils:jsonata:yaml:transform
• roadiehq:utils:merge
• roadiehq:utils:serialize:json
• roadiehq:utils:serialize:yaml
• roadiehq:utils:sleep
• roadiehq:utils:zip

Open /create/actions after the install to confirm the new IDs before you use them in a template.

References

• Writing Templates — author templates with these actions.
• Software Templates — run templates from the Create page.
• Backstage: Built-in actions — upstream reference for the built-in actions.