---
title: Onboard with Internal Developer Portal
description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring.
breadcrumbs: Docs > Internal Developer Portal > Onboard with Internal Developer Portal
---

# Onboard with Internal Developer Portal

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# Important note for users on the following Datadog sites: app.ddog-gov.com

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This product is not supported for your selected [Datadog site](https://docs.datadoghq.com/getting_started/site.md). ().
{% /alert %}

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## Overview{% #overview %}

This onboarding guide walks platform and engineering leaders through the phases of implementing Datadog's Internal Developer Portal (IDP).

Recommendations:

- Onboard one or two teams first, and use their feedback to refine standards.
- Iterate regularly—treat your Internal Developer Portal as a product.
- Connect IDP standards with other initiatives, such as SLOs, CI/CD pipelines, and incident workflows.

## Phase 1: Plan your implementation{% #phase-1-plan-your-implementation %}

1. **Review key concepts**: Learn about the [Entity model](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/entity_model/entity_types.md), [Scorecards](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/scorecards.md), and [Self-service Actions](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/self_service_actions.md).
1. **Bring in your organization's structure**: Set up [Teams](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/set_up/ownership.md) and mirror your hierarchy in Datadog.
1. **Define your ontology**: Map your existing systems to the [Entity model](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/entity_model/entity_types.md) so your structure aligns with Datadog's schema. Decide which [entity types](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/entity_model.md) and validations you want to enforce.

## Phase 2: Familiarize yourself with tooling{% #phase-2-familiarize-yourself-with-tooling %}

1. **Identify data sources**: Learn about the three ways to bring in entities, and decide what to use as sources of truth for your [Software Catalog](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog.md):

   - **[Automatically discover entries from Datadog](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/set_up/discover_entities.md)** products, such as APM, RUM, or USM. You can also import from Infrastructure or Log Management.
   - **Import from external systems** such as [Backstage](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/set_up/import_entities.md#import-from-backstage) or [ServiceNow](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/set_up/import_entities.md#import-from-servicenow).
   - **[Create entries directly](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/set_up/create_entities.md)** through the Datadog UI, or programmatically by importing from GitHub, Terraform, the Datadog Software Metadata Provider, or the Service Definition API.

**Note**: If you use APM, prioritize [Unified Service Tagging](https://docs.datadoghq.com/getting_started/tagging/unified_service_tagging.md) and [Inferred Services](https://docs.datadoghq.com/tracing/services/inferred_services.md) as entry points, rather than relying on service overrides.

1. **Create internal onboarding guidance**: Document tagging standards, sample `entity.definition.yaml` files, and expectations for application teams.
1. **Explore automation**: Use the [API](https://docs.datadoghq.com/api/latest/software-catalog.md) or Terraform provider to manage entities, scorecards, and workflows programmatically.

## Phase 3: Integrate data sources{% #phase-3-integrate-data-sources %}

1. **Adopt GitOps-style management**: [Connect GitHub](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/set_up/create_entities.md#github-integration) or other repos to manage your catalog. [Import existing Backstage manifests](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/set_up/import_entities.md#import-from-backstage) if available.
1. **[Import from ServiceNow](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/set_up/import_entities.md#import-from-servicenow)**: Sync CIs from your ServiceNow CMDB into IDP.
1. **Connect on-call and incident tools**: Configure [Jira](https://docs.datadoghq.com/integrations/jira.md), [PagerDuty](https://docs.datadoghq.com/integrations/pagerduty.md), or [other integrations](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/integrations.md).

## Phase 4: Customize and extend schema{% #phase-4-customize-and-extend-schema %}

1. **Establish entity definition standards**: Decide how you represent criticality, lifecycle, and environments. See [Entity Model](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/entity_model.md) for definition schemas.
1. **Set metadata expectations**: Decide on whether to include [custom tags and extensions](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog/entity_model.md?tab=v30#build-custom-extensions). Determine how to define relationships between components, and how to audit automatically detected relationships.
1. **Maintain internal guidance**: Keep documentation for developers, such as standards for instrumentation and tagging, and sample entity definition manifests.

## Phase 5: Establish and communicate standards{% #phase-5-establish-and-communicate-standards %}

1. **Review recommended Scorecards**: Start with [Datadog's out-of-the-box rules](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/scorecards.md). Select those relevant to your organization.
1. **Add organization-specific rules**: [Extend scorecards](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/scorecards/custom_rules.md) with custom security checks, deployment frequency requirements, or tagging standards.
1. **Set levels of criticality**: [Group rules into levels](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/scorecards/scorecard_configuration.md#group-rules-into-levels) to signal importance.

## Phase 6: Set up golden paths{% #phase-6-set-up-golden-paths %}

1. **Review example blueprints**: Explore [Self-service blueprints](https://app.datadoghq.com/software/self-service-actions), which show example paths for infrastructure provisioning and management, project scaffolding, and more. Experiment with modifying the blueprints to fit your organization's stack.
1. **Explore the Action Catalog**: See supported integrations, or extend with [HTTP requests and private actions](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/self_service_actions.md).
1. **Publish your first workflow**: Build a golden path and iterate based on developer feedback.

## Phase 7: Explore engineering reports{% #phase-7-explore-engineering-reports %}

1. **Track progress**: Use built-in [Engineering Reports](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/eng_reports.md) to monitor production readiness, reliability, and adoption of best practices.
1. **Measure engagement**: Monitor developer engagement through the built-in usage analytics dashboard.

## Further reading{% #further-reading %}

- [Exploring IDP in Datadog](https://app.datadoghq.com/idp/get-started)
- [Getting started with Internal Developer Portal](https://docs.datadoghq.com/getting_started/internal_developer_portal.md)
- [Software Catalog](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/software_catalog.md)
- [Scorecards](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/scorecards.md)
- [Self-service Actions](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/self_service_actions.md)
- [Engineering Reports](https://docs.datadoghq.com/internal_developer_portal/eng_reports.md)
- [Keep service ownership up to date with Datadog Teams' GitHub integration](https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/datadog-teams-github-integration)