> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tentacle.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Tentacle without Backstage

If your team is not yet using Backstage, Tentacle can still be a valuable tool to enhance your GitHub-based development workflow. While Tentacle was designed to work seamlessly with Backstage, it can also be used as a standalone solution.

By adding a `catalog-info.yaml` file to the root directory of your GitHub repository, Tentacle will automatically detect and display the links defined within it.

The following snippet is the bare minimum that Tentacle needs.

```yaml catalog-info.yaml theme={null}
apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  links:
    - url: https://admin.example.com
      title: Admin Dashboard
```

However, it's important to note that this minimal version of the catalog-info.yaml file is not a fully valid Backstage configuration. A complete, Backstage-compatible catalog-info.yaml file would look like this:

```yaml catalog-info.yaml theme={null}
apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: artist-service
  links:
    - url: https://admin.example.com
      title: Admin Dashboard
spec:
  type: service
  lifecycle: production
  owner: team-awesome
```

However besides `kind: Component` and `metadata.links` Tentacle will ignore all the other values.

## Gradual Adoption of Backstage

If your team is considering adopting Backstage in the future, Tentacle can be a great first step. By using Tentacle to manage your links and resources within GitHub, you can gradually introduce your team to the benefits of a software catalog without the overhead of setting up a full Backstage instance right away.

As your team becomes more familiar with the advantages of a centralized software catalog, you can then explore the broader capabilities of Backstage and seamlessly integrate it with your existing Tentacle setup.