Dynamic Plugins

Dynamic plugins are the mechanism DevPortal uses to ship, enable, and configure Backstage plugins without rebuilding the container image. This is one of the core differentiators of the distro.

Loading is step 1 of 3

This doc covers how plugins are packaged and loaded. Loading is necessary but not sufficient — a loaded plugin does nothing visible until two more steps are in place:

Load (dynamic-plugins.yaml) — this doc. Makes the plugin's code available.
Context (entity annotations in catalog-info.yaml) — tells the plugin which catalog entities it should attach to. Without the correct annotation on an entity, the plugin is loaded but idle.
Backend (app-config.yaml) — provides the credentials and endpoints the plugin queries. Without this, the plugin's tab appears but shows an error or empty state.

All three must be in place before a developer sees live data. See Composing a Portal for the full model and a worked example.

Preinstalled vs. Downloaded Plugins

DevPortal ships two categories of dynamic plugins:

Preinstalled (bundled) plugins

These are compiled into the image at build time and live under /app/dynamic-plugins/dist/. They are always present but start disabled by default (disabled: true). You enable them at runtime by listing them in your dynamic-plugins.yaml configuration.

The full list of preinstalled plugins and their default configuration is in devportal-distro/dynamic-plugins.default.yaml.

Downloaded (OCI/NPM) plugins

These are not bundled in the image. They are pulled at startup from an OCI registry (oci://...) or an NPM registry. You add them to your dynamic-plugins.yaml and the runtime downloads and installs them before the app starts.

Enabling Plugins

To enable a plugin, reference it in your dynamic-plugins.yaml:

plugins:
  # Enable a preinstalled plugin (already in the image)
  - package: ./dynamic-plugins/dist/backstage-plugin-kubernetes-dynamic
    disabled: false
    pluginConfig:
      # ... plugin-specific config

  # Download and enable an OCI plugin
  - package: 'oci://quay.io/veecode/backstage:bs_1.49.4!backstage-plugin-mcp-actions-backend'
    disabled: false
    pluginConfig:
      # ... plugin-specific config

In the Helm chart, this maps to global.dynamic.plugins in values.yaml. For Docker installs, mount your dynamic-plugins.yaml into the container at /app/dynamic-plugins.yaml (the entrypoint processes it at startup). Note that VEECODE_APP_CONFIG only carries app-config content — it cannot be used to deliver dynamic-plugins.yaml.

Plugin Configuration

Each plugin entry can include a pluginConfig block that is merged into the app configuration for that plugin. This is how entity tabs, mount points, and feature flags are configured without touching app-config.yaml directly.

Mount points (frontend plugins) and backend plugin wiring are both declared in the plugin's own pluginConfig:

pluginConfig:
  dynamicPlugins:
    frontend:
      my-org.my-plugin:
        mountPoints:
          - mountPoint: entity.page.overview/cards
            importName: MyEntityCard
        dynamicRoutes:
          - path: /my-feature
            importName: MyFeaturePage

The Extensions Marketplace

The distro includes a plugin marketplace (devportal-marketplace-frontend-dynamic) that allows admins to browse, enable, and disable plugins via the DevPortal UI. Marketplace access is controlled by RBAC permissions (extensions.plugin.configuration.read/write). See Permissions for details.

MCP Stack (AI-powered Actions)

The distro ships an optional MCP (Model Context Protocol) stack as OCI dynamic plugins from quay.io/veecode:

Package	Role
`backstage-plugin-mcp-actions-backend`	Core MCP backend; aggregates tool sources
`*-software-catalog-mcp-extras`	Catalog tools for MCP
`*-techdocs-mcp-extras`	TechDocs tools for MCP
`*-scaffolder-mcp-extras`	Scaffolder tools for MCP
`-mcp-chat-backend` + `-mcp-chat`	In-portal AI chat at `/mcp-chat`

All must be enabled together (disabled: false). Supported AI providers for the chat plugin: OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and Ollama.

Key Files

File	Purpose
`dynamic-plugins.default.yaml`	All preinstalled plugins with their defaults (disabled by default)
`dynamic-plugins.yaml`	Your runtime overrides — enable plugins and add OCI/NPM packages here
`app-config.dynamic-plugins.yaml`	Generated at startup; merges plugin configs into the running app config

For adding plugins through the UI, see the Adding Plugins guide.

Loading is step 1 of 3​

Preinstalled vs. Downloaded Plugins​

Preinstalled (bundled) plugins​

Downloaded (OCI/NPM) plugins​

Enabling Plugins​

Plugin Configuration​

The Extensions Marketplace​

MCP Stack (AI-powered Actions)​

Key Files​