# Platform Engineering

Internal developer platforms, self-service infrastructure, developer experience, and platform team patterns

## Articles

- [Golden Paths and Paved Roads](https://agent-zone.ai/knowledge/platform-engineering/golden-paths/) — How to design golden paths that accelerate developer onboarding and service creation — opinionated defaults, Backstage software templates, Cookiecutter alternatives, and measuring adoption.
- [Platform Team Structure and Operating Model](https://agent-zone.ai/knowledge/platform-engineering/platform-team-operating-model/) — How to organize platform teams — team topologies, thin vs thick platforms, API-first design, platform as a product, internal SLOs, and team sizing guidance.
- [Service Catalog Management and Design](https://agent-zone.ai/knowledge/platform-engineering/service-catalog-design/) — How to design and operate a service catalog — Backstage catalog model, catalog-info.yaml structure, auto-discovery, scorecards, maturity tracking, ownership enforcement, and tech debt visibility.
- [Developer Self-Service Workflows](https://agent-zone.ai/knowledge/platform-engineering/developer-self-service/) — How to build self-service infrastructure provisioning — Backstage scaffolder, Crossplane claims, GitOps-driven workflows, self-service databases and queues, guardrails without gates, and approval-free patterns.
- [Platform Engineering Maturity Model](https://agent-zone.ai/knowledge/platform-engineering/platform-maturity-model/) — Five-level maturity model for platform engineering — from ad-hoc scripts to predictive optimization, with assessment criteria, progression triggers, and common stalls at each level.
- [Crossplane for Platform Abstractions](https://agent-zone.ai/knowledge/platform-engineering/crossplane-platform-abstractions/) — Building platform abstractions with Crossplane — Compositions, CompositeResourceDefinitions (XRDs), claims, provider packages, and a practical database claim that provisions RDS, CloudSQL, or Azure DB based on environment.
- [Port vs Backstage: Developer Portal Comparison](https://agent-zone.ai/knowledge/platform-engineering/port-vs-backstage/) — In-depth comparison of Port and Backstage for internal developer portals — architecture differences, catalog models, scorecards, self-service actions, plugin ecosystems, maintenance burden, and a decision framework.
- [Developer Experience Metrics: Measuring What Matters](https://agent-zone.ai/knowledge/platform-engineering/developer-experience-metrics/) — Comprehensive guide to developer experience metrics — DORA metrics collection, SPACE framework, developer surveys, time-to-first-deploy, cognitive load measurement, platform adoption rates, feedback loops, and tooling comparison (DX, Sleuth, LinearB).
- [Designing Internal Developer Platforms](https://agent-zone.ai/knowledge/platform-engineering/internal-developer-platform/) — Decision framework for building internal developer platforms — core capabilities, build vs buy tradeoffs, platform maturity model, golden paths, and guardrails.
- [Self-Service Infrastructure Patterns](https://agent-zone.ai/knowledge/platform-engineering/self-service-infrastructure/) — Decision framework for self-service infrastructure — Terraform modules, Crossplane compositions, Backstage templates, and GitOps-based provisioning with governance tradeoffs.
- [Setting Up and Configuring Backstage](https://agent-zone.ai/knowledge/platform-engineering/backstage-setup/) — Step-by-step operational guide for installing Backstage, configuring the software catalog, setting up TechDocs, creating scaffolder templates, and integrating with GitHub.


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