Golden Paths for Contract-First Development
A core responsibility of Internal Developer Platforms is to create safe, standardized, and repeatable paths that developers can follow to build and deliver software efficiently. These predefined workflows are commonly known as golden paths.
In a contract-first platform, golden paths don’t begin with code—they begin with a specification.
Why Contract-First Golden Paths?
Most traditional scaffolding templates begin by generating service code and optionally bootstrapping CI pipelines. However, in a contract-first approach, the API or event contract becomes the foundational artifact. This shift in starting point enables several benefits:
- Decoupled Development: Frontend, backend, and integration teams can work in parallel once a contract is defined.
- Early Governance: Standards for naming, versioning, and security can be enforced at the contract level.
- Accelerated Onboarding: New developers can build conformant services without deep platform knowledge.
How It Works in Backstage
A typical contract-first golden path in Backstage might include the following steps:
- Choose a Template: Developers select from templates like “New REST API,” “New AsyncAPI Consumer,” or “New Kafka Producer.”
- Define the Contract: The scaffolder prompts the user to define or upload a valid OpenAPI or AsyncAPI specification.
- Generate Artifacts:
- Scaffolds a repo with contract in version control.
- Generates boilerplate service code (if needed).
- Creates initial CI/CD configuration.
- Registers the API and component in the Backstage catalog.
- Trigger Pipelines: The new service is automatically integrated into CI/CD pipelines that validate and publish the contract.
Automation and Policy Integration
By starting with the contract, golden paths can enforce policies programmatically:
- Linting and validation of API specs.
- Automatic generation of documentation.
- Version control hooks that prevent breaking changes.
- Registration in API gateways or service meshes.
Realizing the Benefits
To realize the full benefits of contract-first golden paths, teams should treat specifications as source-of-truth artifacts. Contracts should live in version-controlled repositories and participate in the same review processes as application code.
By building automation and governance around these contracts, platforms can unlock a new level of consistency, velocity, and developer autonomy.
Golden paths are more than templates—they are strategic investments in developer experience and platform maturity. A contract-first perspective ensures they scale safely, sustainably, and in alignment with platform goals.