Service Center Backstage integration

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 10:18:04 +0000

Service Center Backstage integration

Users of Backstage can continuously import their Backstage catalog to populate Service Center data in Grafana Cloud.

This integration allows you to import your defined services and correlate to resources in Grafana IRM and SLO.

Quick Start Guide

Follow the quick start guide to test this plugin with a new Backstage install. The instructions should carry over to your production install.

Install a new backstage instance

To create a backstage instance and install this plugin for local development, run the following:

> BACKSTAGE_APP_NAME=backstage-testing npx @backstage/create-app@latest
> cd backstage-testing
> git clone https://github.com/grafana/backstage-plugin-grafana-catalog.git  plugins/catalog-backend-module-grafana-servicemodel
> sed -i 's/"name": "@grafana\/catalog-backend-module-grafana-servicemodel",/"name": "@internal\/catalog-backend-module-grafana-servicemodel",/' plugins/catalog-backend-module-grafana-servicemodel/package.json

> yarn --cwd packages/backend add @internal/catalog-backend-module-grafana-servicemodel

add this line to packages/backend/src/index.ts:

backend.add(import('@internal/catalog-backend-module-grafana-servicemodel'));

Then to run:

> LOG_LEVEL=debug yarn dev

If you want to run against the k8s cluster in your default context:

> LOG_LEVEL=debug DEV_MODE=true yarn dev

Escalate issues from the Service Center

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 10:18:04 +0000

Escalate issues from the Service Center

The Service Center in Grafana SLO allows you to respond quickly to issues affecting your services. If you see signs of service degradation, a missed SLO, or another problem, you can take direct action:

Escalate the issue to a responsible team or individual
Declare an incident, automatically labeled with the affected service
View and contact the current on-call responder for the service

These actions leverage your Grafana IRM configuration to help teams streamline incident response from within the service context.

Before you begin

To use these features, you must configure the following:

Assign a team to each service
Create an on-call schedule with active participants for each team
Enable the manual direct paging integration to escalate to a team
Access to the Teams API to view on-call users

Note
You can still declare incidents and open the escalation drawer without access to the Teams API.

Escalate an issue

When you escalate an issue from the Service Center, it connects directly to your IRM escalation workflows.

To escalate a service-related issue:

In the service list or service details page,, click the More menu.
Select Escalate.
In the escalation drawer, add a description of the issue.
If the service has a team assigned, that team is added as a default escalation participant. Otherwise, add users or teams manually.
Click Create.

The escalation creates an alert in Grafana IRM with:

The service name as a label
Your description as the alert message
The selected teams/users as participants
A link back to the service in the Service Center

For more information, refer to Respond to alerts in Grafana IRM.

Declare an incident

You can declare an incident in Grafana IRM directly from the Service Center:

In the service list or service details page, click the More menu.
Select Declare incident.
The incident form opens with the service name prefilled as a label.
Provide a title, severity, and any other details.
Click Declare incident.

For more information, refer to the Declare an incident documentation.

View who is on-call for a service

The service center shows the current on-call user based on your Grafana IRM on-call schedules.

On the service details page, you can view the current on-call user if:

The service has a team assigned
That team has an active on-call schedule with at least one participant

This section displays:

The avatar and name of the on-call user(s)
The associated schedule
On-call status indicator

To enable this view:

Contact the on-call person for a service

From the service center, you can contact responders directly through the IRM on-call user card.

Hover over the on-call avatar to reveal:

The user’s local time
Whether the user is within working hours
Escalate: Opens the escalation drawer with the user added by default
Slack DM: Opens a direct message (if Slack is connected)

Even if direct paging is not enabled for the team, you can still escalate to an individual user from the avatar card.

Access requirements

All authenticated users can view details of their own teams and declare incidents
Organization admins can manage and view all teams

To view teams and on-call information, you must have access to the Grafana Team API.

To Escalate an issue from the Service Center, you must have one of the following roles:

Editor basic role
Alert Groups Direct Paging role
OnCaller role

For details on Grafana IRM permissions, refer to Roles and permissions.

Service Center on Grafana Labs

Service Center Backstage integration

Service Center Backstage integration

Quick Start Guide

Install a new backstage instance

Escalate issues from the Service Center

Escalate issues from the Service Center

Before you begin

Escalate an issue

Declare an incident

View who is on-call for a service

Contact the on-call person for a service

Access requirements