Golden path - Node.js microservice template

[sarajkrishnasingh]

We need a Backstage software template (scaffolder template) for new Node.js microservices. What it should generate:

Repo structure:

• src/ with Express app skeleton
• Dockerfile (multi-stage, non-root user)
• .github/workflows/ci.yml (lint, test, build, push to ECR)
• catalog-info.yaml (pre-populated with mandatory annotations)
• docs/ with MkDocs setup for TechDocs
• README.md with architecture section placeholder
• helm/ with a minimal Helm chart

Template inputs:

• Service name
• Team name
• AWS region
• ECR repo name
• GitHub repo to create

Assigning to myself to build the scaffolder template.

[miacycle]

Add a tier input to the template - defaults to tier-2 - so the catalog annotation is set from day one. Also: the CI workflow should include a step that runs checkov against the Dockerfile and Helm chart. We'd catch misconfigurations before deploy.

[arjunmehta-git]

The Helm chart output is great. Make sure it includes resource requests/limits and a HorizontalPodAutoscaler. We've had teams go to prod without either and it causes incidents.

[winkletinkle]

For the Dockerfile: base image should be node:20-alpine not node:20. Alpine saves ~200MB per image. Also add HEALTHCHECK instruction - it helps Kubernetes liveness probes and shows up in Docker Desktop.