Service catalog · 01 of 05 · The front door

One API, three kinds of caller

A developer at a portal, a pipeline making a commit, and an agent acting on someone's behalf all ask for the same things. If they each had their own way in, you'd have three platforms to keep honest.

One API, three kinds of caller Three rows. Who asks: a developer through Tower and Backstage templates, a pipeline through Glidepath as a git commit, and an AI agent through Autopilot and its Clearance gateway, drawn dashed because the agent runtime is proposed. All three converge on one contract, Airframe, with its XRDs, contract bundle and llms.txt, and every write is a git commit. Airframe feeds the Backstage catalog, an inventory generated from its CRDs. Crossplane composes what runs: apps and environments (NodeJS, Python, Go, Spring Boot), components (PostgreSQL, Redis, RabbitMQ) and secrets and identity (SecretStore, Dex). What runs reports back as status and reasons: ComponentReady and verify checks. WHO ASKSONE CONTRACT · EVERY WRITE IS A COMMITWHAT RUNSDeveloperTower · Backstage templatesPipelineGlidepath · a git commitAI agentAutopilot · through ClearanceCROSSPLANE COMPOSESREPORTSBackstage cataloginventory, generated from CRDsAirframeXRDs · contract bundle · llms.txtStatus and reasonsComponentReady · verify checksApps and environmentsNodeJS · Python · Go · SpringComponentsPostgreSQL · Redis · RabbitMQSecrets and identitySecretStore · DexThree kinds of caller, one front door. The catalog is the API they all agree on.LEGENDPeople and pipelinesAgents, runtime proposedThe contractGenerated or observedCreatesReads

Built

  • Fifteen APIs in Airframe, reconciled by Crossplane.
  • Backstage holds no Kubernetes credentials; its templates make git commits.
  • A generated contract bundle and llms.txt, checked in CI.

Proposed

Autopilot's runtime: agents reach the same APIs through Clearance, with narrow, audited authority. The Clearance core is built and tested; the real backends are not.

Why one door

Policy, audit and naming live in one place. A new kind of caller, even one we haven't thought of yet, inherits all of it for free.

Hangar · Airframe · Service catalog