Project Taxonomy

Project Taxonomy

This document defines the 25 project Kinds organized into 5 tiers.

Each Kind represents a category of project that can be cataloged in Backstage. The taxonomy is used by the ASSESS issue type to classify projects and generate catalog-info.yaml files.

Version

• Version: 1.0.0
• Description: Operator project taxonomy for Backstage catalog

Quick Reference

All 24 Kinds at a glance:

ID	Key	Name	Tier	Backstage Type
1	infrastructure	Infrastructure (IaC)	foundation	resource
2	identity-access	Identity & Access (IAM)	foundation	resource
3	config-policy	Config & Policy	foundation	resource
4	monorepo-meta	Monorepo / Meta	foundation	system
5	design-system	Design Systems	standards	library
6	software-library	Software Libraries	standards	library
7	proto-sdk	Proto / SDK	standards	api
8	blueprint	Blueprints	standards	template
9	security-tooling	Security Tooling	standards	tool
10	compliance-audit	Compliance / Audit	standards	documentation
11	ml-model	ML / Models	engines	service
12	data-etl	Data / ETL	engines	service
13	microservice	Microservices	engines	service
14	api-gateway	APIs / Gateways	engines	api
15	ui-frontend	UIs / Frontends	engines	website
16	internal-tool	Internal Tooling	engines	service
17	build-tool	Build Tools	ecosystem	tool
18	e2e-test	E2E Test Suites	ecosystem	tool
19	docs-site	Docs Sites	ecosystem	website
20	playbook	Internal Playbooks	ecosystem	documentation
21	cli-devtool	CLIs / Developer Tools	ecosystem	tool
22	reference-example	Reference / Example	noncurrent	documentation
23	experiment-sandbox	Experiment / Sandbox	noncurrent	service
24	archival-fork	Archival / Forks	noncurrent	library
25	test-data-fixtures	Test Data / Fixtures	noncurrent	resource

Tier: Foundation (Kinds 1-4)

Infrastructure and platform foundations

ID	Key	Name	Stakeholder	Output
1	infrastructure	Infrastructure (IaC)	Platform/DevOps	Cloud Environment
2	identity-access	Identity & Access (IAM)	SDET/SecOps	Permissions/Tokens
3	config-policy	Config & Policy	Platform/DevOps	Runtime Behavior
4	monorepo-meta	Monorepo / Meta	Architect/Lead	Project Standards

1 - Infrastructure (IaC)

Cloud resources and network (Terraform/CDK)

• Key: infrastructure
• Stakeholder: Platform/DevOps
• Primary Output: Cloud Environment
• Backstage Type: resource

Detection File Patterns:

• *.tf
• *.tfvars
• cdk.json
• cdk.context.json
• pulumi.yaml
• Pulumi.yaml
• cloudformation.yaml
• cloudformation.yml
• serverless.yml
• terraform.tfstate

2 - Identity & Access (IAM)

Service accounts, secrets, and RBAC policies

• Key: identity-access
• Stakeholder: SDET/SecOps
• Primary Output: Permissions/Tokens
• Backstage Type: resource

Detection File Patterns:

• iam-*.yaml
• iam-*.yml
• rbac*.yaml
• rbac*.yml
• policies/*.json
• policies/*.yaml
• service-account*.yaml
• .vault/*
• vault-*.hcl

3 - Config & Policy

Global feature flags and environment manifests

• Key: config-policy
• Stakeholder: Platform/DevOps
• Primary Output: Runtime Behavior
• Backstage Type: resource

Detection File Patterns:

• config/*.yaml
• config/*.yml
• config/*.toml
• environments/*.yaml
• environments/*.yml
• .env.example
• feature-flags.yaml
• feature-flags.json
• launchdarkly*.yaml

4 - Monorepo / Meta

Orchestration for projects and root standards

• Key: monorepo-meta
• Stakeholder: Architect/Lead
• Primary Output: Project Standards
• Backstage Type: system

Detection File Patterns:

• nx.json
• turbo.json
• lerna.json
• pnpm-workspace.yaml
• rush.json
• Cargo.toml
• .github/CODEOWNERS
• CLAUDE.md
• CONTRIBUTING.md

Tier: Standards (Kinds 5-10)

Shared components and specifications

ID	Key	Name	Stakeholder	Output
5	design-system	Design Systems	Product/UX	Component Libraries
6	software-library	Software Libraries	Engineering	Versioned Packages
7	proto-sdk	Proto / SDK	Engineering	Contract Libraries
8	blueprint	Blueprints	Architect/Lead	Project Templates
9	security-tooling	Security Tooling	SDET/SecOps	Security Reports
10	compliance-audit	Compliance / Audit	SDET/SecOps	Compliance Proofs

5 - Design Systems

Reusable UI components and brand tokens

• Key: design-system
• Stakeholder: Product/UX
• Primary Output: Component Libraries
• Backstage Type: library

Detection File Patterns:

• tokens/*.json
• tokens/*.yaml
• design-tokens/*
• .storybook/*
• stories/*.stories.*
• components/*.stories.*
• figma-tokens.json
• style-dictionary.config.*

6 - Software Libraries

Reusable internal logic packages (Shared Utils)

• Key: software-library
• Stakeholder: Engineering
• Primary Output: Versioned Packages
• Backstage Type: library

Detection File Patterns:

• lib/*
• packages/*/package.json
• crates/*/Cargo.toml
• src/lib.rs
• index.ts
• index.js
• setup.py
• pyproject.toml

7 - Proto / SDK

API contracts and generated client libraries

• Key: proto-sdk
• Stakeholder: Engineering
• Primary Output: Contract Libraries
• Backstage Type: api

Detection File Patterns:

• *.proto
• proto/*
• protos/*
• openapi.yaml
• openapi.json
• swagger.yaml
• swagger.json
• graphql.schema
• schema.graphql
• *.thrift
• buf.yaml
• buf.gen.yaml

8 - Blueprints

Scaffolding templates for bootstrapping repos

• Key: blueprint
• Stakeholder: Architect/Lead
• Primary Output: Project Templates
• Backstage Type: template

Detection File Patterns:

• template.yaml
• cookiecutter.json
• copier.yaml
• copier.yml
• yeoman-generator/*
• skeleton/*
• blueprint/*
• .scaffold/*

9 - Security Tooling

Custom scanners, audit scripts, and honeytokens

• Key: security-tooling
• Stakeholder: SDET/SecOps
• Primary Output: Security Reports
• Backstage Type: tool

Detection File Patterns:

• security/*
• audit/*
• scanners/*
• .snyk
• trivy.yaml
• semgrep.yaml
• semgrep.yml
• .gitleaks.toml
• bandit.yaml
• safety/*

10 - Compliance / Audit

Evidence, snapshots, and regulatory reports

• Key: compliance-audit
• Stakeholder: SDET/SecOps
• Primary Output: Compliance Proofs
• Backstage Type: documentation

Detection File Patterns:

• compliance/*
• audit-logs/*
• evidence/*
• soc2/*
• hipaa/*
• gdpr/*
• pci-dss/*
• attestations/*
• controls/*.yaml

Tier: Engines (Kinds 11-16)

Core business logic and services

ID	Key	Name	Stakeholder	Output
11	ml-model	ML / Models	Data/ML	Model Artifacts
12	data-etl	Data / ETL	Data/ML	Clean Datasets
13	microservice	Microservices	Engineering	Running Binaries
14	api-gateway	APIs / Gateways	Engineering	Network Endpoints
15	ui-frontend	UIs / Frontends	Engineering	Web/Mobile Assets
16	internal-tool	Internal Tooling	Engineering	Operational Apps

11 - ML / Models

Training scripts and model weight artifacts

• Key: ml-model
• Stakeholder: Data/ML
• Primary Output: Model Artifacts
• Backstage Type: service

Detection File Patterns:

• model/*
• models/*
• training/*
• *.h5
• *.pt
• *.pth
• *.onnx
• *.pkl
• mlflow.yaml
• MLproject
• dvc.yaml
• dvc.lock

12 - Data / ETL

Data transformation logic and SQL models

• Key: data-etl
• Stakeholder: Data/ML
• Primary Output: Clean Datasets
• Backstage Type: service

Detection File Patterns:

• dbt_project.yml
• models/*.sql
• transforms/*
• pipelines/*
• airflow/*
• dags/*
• prefect.yaml
• dagster.yaml
• fivetran/*

13 - Microservices

Backend business logic and domain units

• Key: microservice
• Stakeholder: Engineering
• Primary Output: Running Binaries
• Backstage Type: service

Detection File Patterns:

• src/main.rs
• main.go
• cmd/main.go
• src/main/java/*
• main.py
• app.py
• server.ts
• server.js
• Dockerfile
• docker-compose.yml

14 - APIs / Gateways

Entry points that route and protect traffic

• Key: api-gateway
• Stakeholder: Engineering
• Primary Output: Network Endpoints
• Backstage Type: api

Detection File Patterns:

• gateway/*
• api-gateway/*
• kong.yaml
• kong.yml
• nginx.conf
• envoy.yaml
• traefik.yaml
• traefik.yml
• routes/*
• api/*.yaml

15 - UIs / Frontends

Web or mobile apps for end-user interaction

• Key: ui-frontend
• Stakeholder: Engineering
• Primary Output: Web/Mobile Assets
• Backstage Type: website

Detection File Patterns:

• src/App.tsx
• src/App.jsx
• src/App.vue
• src/App.svelte
• pages/*
• app/*
• next.config.*
• nuxt.config.*
• vite.config.*
• angular.json
• expo/*

16 - Internal Tooling

Private apps for internal business operations

• Key: internal-tool
• Stakeholder: Engineering
• Primary Output: Operational Apps
• Backstage Type: service

Detection File Patterns:

• admin/*
• backoffice/*
• internal/*
• dashboard/*
• retool/*
• metabase/*

Tier: Ecosystem (Kinds 17-21)

Supporting tools and utilities

ID	Key	Name	Stakeholder	Output
17	build-tool	Build Tools	Platform/DevOps	Automated Pipelines
18	e2e-test	E2E Test Suites	SDET/SecOps	Quality Reports
19	docs-site	Docs Sites	Product/UX	Static Support Sites
20	playbook	Internal Playbooks	Platform/DevOps	Operational Guides
21	cli-devtool	CLIs / Developer Tools	Platform/DevOps	Developer UX Tools

17 - Build Tools

CI/CD actions and custom build logic

• Key: build-tool
• Stakeholder: Platform/DevOps
• Primary Output: Automated Pipelines
• Backstage Type: tool

Detection File Patterns:

• .github/workflows/*
• .github/actions/*
• .gitlab-ci.yml
• Jenkinsfile
• .circleci/*
• azure-pipelines.yml
• buildkite/*
• .drone.yml
• Makefile
• Taskfile.yml

18 - E2E Test Suites

Integration tests and smoke test runners

• Key: e2e-test
• Stakeholder: SDET/SecOps
• Primary Output: Quality Reports
• Backstage Type: tool

Detection File Patterns:

• e2e/*
• tests/e2e/*
• integration/*
• tests/integration/*
• playwright.config.*
• cypress.config.*
• cypress/*
• playwright/*
• k6/*
• locust/*

19 - Docs Sites

Documentation, tutorials, and references

• Key: docs-site
• Stakeholder: Product/UX
• Primary Output: Static Support Sites
• Backstage Type: website

Detection File Patterns:

• docs/*
• docusaurus.config.*
• mkdocs.yml
• mkdocs.yaml
• _config.yml
• hugo.toml
• hugo.yaml
• sphinx/*
• conf.py
• book.toml

20 - Internal Playbooks

Incident response and on-call runbooks

• Key: playbook
• Stakeholder: Platform/DevOps
• Primary Output: Operational Guides
• Backstage Type: documentation

Detection File Patterns:

• playbooks/*
• runbooks/*
• oncall/*
• incidents/*
• postmortems/*
• sops/*
• procedures/*

21 - CLIs / Developer Tools

Productivity scripts and developer utilities

• Key: cli-devtool
• Stakeholder: Platform/DevOps
• Primary Output: Developer UX Tools
• Backstage Type: tool

Detection File Patterns:

• cli/*
• bin/*
• scripts/*
• tools/*
• devtools/*
• *.sh
• Justfile

Tier: Noncurrent (Kinds 22-25)

Repos of little product or operational importance (test data, examples, archives, forks)

ID	Key	Name	Stakeholder	Output
22	reference-example	Reference / Example	Architect/Lead	Educational Code
23	experiment-sandbox	Experiment / Sandbox	Engineering	Discardable Code
24	archival-fork	Archival / Forks	SDET/SecOps	Historical/Vendor Code
25	test-data-fixtures	Test Data / Fixtures	SDET/SecOps	Test Data Assets

22 - Reference / Example

Best-practice implementation examples

• Key: reference-example
• Stakeholder: Architect/Lead
• Primary Output: Educational Code
• Backstage Type: documentation

Detection File Patterns:

• examples/*
• samples/*
• demo/*
• tutorials/*
• quickstart/*
• getting-started/*

23 - Experiment / Sandbox

Proof-of-concepts and R&D “spikes”

• Key: experiment-sandbox
• Stakeholder: Engineering
• Primary Output: Discardable Code
• Backstage Type: service

Detection File Patterns:

• experiments/*
• sandbox/*
• spikes/*
• poc/*
• proof-of-concept/*
• scratch/*
• playground/*

24 - Archival / Forks

Legacy code and forks of 3rd party repos

• Key: archival-fork
• Stakeholder: SDET/SecOps
• Primary Output: Historical/Vendor Code
• Backstage Type: library

Detection File Patterns:

• vendor/*
• third-party/*
• 3rdparty/*
• external/*
• archive/*
• legacy/*
• deprecated/*

25 - Test Data / Fixtures

Repositories containing test data, fixtures, seed data, and mock datasets

• Key: test-data-fixtures
• Stakeholder: SDET/SecOps
• Primary Output: Test Data Assets
• Backstage Type: resource

Detection File Patterns:

• fixtures/*
• testdata/*
• test-data/*
• seeds/*
• seed-data/*
• mocks/*
• mock-data/*
• sample-data/*
• *.fixtures.json
• *.fixture.json
• *.seed.sql
• db/seeds/*

File Pattern Detection

The taxonomy uses file pattern matching to suggest project Kinds. When analyzing a project, patterns are matched against file paths, and the Kind with the most matches is suggested.

Pattern Syntax

Patterns use glob syntax:

• * - Match any characters except /
• ** - Match any characters including /
• ? - Match any single character
• [abc] - Match any character in brackets

All Patterns by Kind

Infrastructure (IaC) (infrastructure):

• *.tf
• *.tfvars
• cdk.json
• cdk.context.json
• pulumi.yaml
• Pulumi.yaml
• cloudformation.yaml
• cloudformation.yml
• serverless.yml
• terraform.tfstate

Identity & Access (IAM) (identity-access):

• iam-*.yaml
• iam-*.yml
• rbac*.yaml
• rbac*.yml
• policies/*.json
• policies/*.yaml
• service-account*.yaml
• .vault/*
• vault-*.hcl

Config & Policy (config-policy):

• config/*.yaml
• config/*.yml
• config/*.toml
• environments/*.yaml
• environments/*.yml
• .env.example
• feature-flags.yaml
• feature-flags.json
• launchdarkly*.yaml

Monorepo / Meta (monorepo-meta):

• nx.json
• turbo.json
• lerna.json
• pnpm-workspace.yaml
• rush.json
• Cargo.toml
• .github/CODEOWNERS
• CLAUDE.md
• CONTRIBUTING.md

Design Systems (design-system):

• tokens/*.json
• tokens/*.yaml
• design-tokens/*
• .storybook/*
• stories/*.stories.*
• components/*.stories.*
• figma-tokens.json
• style-dictionary.config.*

Software Libraries (software-library):

• lib/*
• packages/*/package.json
• crates/*/Cargo.toml
• src/lib.rs
• index.ts
• index.js
• setup.py
• pyproject.toml

Proto / SDK (proto-sdk):

• *.proto
• proto/*
• protos/*
• openapi.yaml
• openapi.json
• swagger.yaml
• swagger.json
• graphql.schema
• schema.graphql
• *.thrift
• buf.yaml
• buf.gen.yaml

Blueprints (blueprint):

• template.yaml
• cookiecutter.json
• copier.yaml
• copier.yml
• yeoman-generator/*
• skeleton/*
• blueprint/*
• .scaffold/*

Security Tooling (security-tooling):

• security/*
• audit/*
• scanners/*
• .snyk
• trivy.yaml
• semgrep.yaml
• semgrep.yml
• .gitleaks.toml
• bandit.yaml
• safety/*

Compliance / Audit (compliance-audit):

• compliance/*
• audit-logs/*
• evidence/*
• soc2/*
• hipaa/*
• gdpr/*
• pci-dss/*
• attestations/*
• controls/*.yaml

ML / Models (ml-model):

• model/*
• models/*
• training/*
• *.h5
• *.pt
• *.pth
• *.onnx
• *.pkl
• mlflow.yaml
• MLproject
• dvc.yaml
• dvc.lock

Data / ETL (data-etl):

• dbt_project.yml
• models/*.sql
• transforms/*
• pipelines/*
• airflow/*
• dags/*
• prefect.yaml
• dagster.yaml
• fivetran/*

Microservices (microservice):

• src/main.rs
• main.go
• cmd/main.go
• src/main/java/*
• main.py
• app.py
• server.ts
• server.js
• Dockerfile
• docker-compose.yml

APIs / Gateways (api-gateway):

• gateway/*
• api-gateway/*
• kong.yaml
• kong.yml
• nginx.conf
• envoy.yaml
• traefik.yaml
• traefik.yml
• routes/*
• api/*.yaml

UIs / Frontends (ui-frontend):

• src/App.tsx
• src/App.jsx
• src/App.vue
• src/App.svelte
• pages/*
• app/*
• next.config.*
• nuxt.config.*
• vite.config.*
• angular.json
• expo/*

Internal Tooling (internal-tool):

• admin/*
• backoffice/*
• internal/*
• dashboard/*
• retool/*
• metabase/*

Build Tools (build-tool):

• .github/workflows/*
• .github/actions/*
• .gitlab-ci.yml
• Jenkinsfile
• .circleci/*
• azure-pipelines.yml
• buildkite/*
• .drone.yml
• Makefile
• Taskfile.yml

E2E Test Suites (e2e-test):

• e2e/*
• tests/e2e/*
• integration/*
• tests/integration/*
• playwright.config.*
• cypress.config.*
• cypress/*
• playwright/*
• k6/*
• locust/*

Docs Sites (docs-site):

• docs/*
• docusaurus.config.*
• mkdocs.yml
• mkdocs.yaml
• _config.yml
• hugo.toml
• hugo.yaml
• sphinx/*
• conf.py
• book.toml

Internal Playbooks (playbook):

• playbooks/*
• runbooks/*
• oncall/*
• incidents/*
• postmortems/*
• sops/*
• procedures/*

CLIs / Developer Tools (cli-devtool):

• cli/*
• bin/*
• scripts/*
• tools/*
• devtools/*
• *.sh
• Justfile

Reference / Example (reference-example):

• examples/*
• samples/*
• demo/*
• tutorials/*
• quickstart/*
• getting-started/*

Experiment / Sandbox (experiment-sandbox):

• experiments/*
• sandbox/*
• spikes/*
• poc/*
• proof-of-concept/*
• scratch/*
• playground/*

Archival / Forks (archival-fork):

• vendor/*
• third-party/*
• 3rdparty/*
• external/*
• archive/*
• legacy/*
• deprecated/*

Test Data / Fixtures (test-data-fixtures):

• fixtures/*
• testdata/*
• test-data/*
• seeds/*
• seed-data/*
• mocks/*
• mock-data/*
• sample-data/*
• *.fixtures.json
• *.fixture.json
• *.seed.sql
• db/seeds/*

Backstage Type Mapping

Each Kind maps to a Backstage catalog type:

Backstage Type	Kinds
api	proto-sdk, api-gateway
documentation	compliance-audit, playbook, reference-example
library	design-system, software-library, archival-fork
resource	infrastructure, identity-access, config-policy, test-data-fixtures
service	ml-model, data-etl, microservice, internal-tool, experiment-sandbox
system	monorepo-meta
template	blueprint
tool	security-tooling, build-tool, e2e-test, cli-devtool
website	ui-frontend, docs-site