Harness launches IDP 2.0 to boost developer speed & security

Harness has launched version 2.0 of its Internal Developer Portal (IDP) with a suite of updates designed to improve software delivery speed, quality, security, and the overall developer experience at enterprise scale.

The latest release builds on the Backstage framework, a Cloud Native Computing Foundation project, and rolls out new features directed at large organisations. The update targets issues seen in previous portals, such as managing complexity, providing scalablility, and unifying fragmented developer experiences.

Enterprise-focused enhancements

Key additions in the updated Harness IDP include fine-grained Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), which provides tighter security and compliance. The RBAC system allows platform teams to specify exactly who can read, create, edit, delete, or execute particular services or workflows at a granular level. For companies in regulated sectors such as finance or healthcare, this is an essential tool for governance.

The release notes, "In large organisations, access boundaries must be explicit. IDP now supports entity-level granular Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), so platform teams can define exactly who can read, create, edit, delete, or execute a given service or workflow. For companies in regulated industries, like financial services or healthcare, this level of control is essential for compliance and risk management. Imagine a company whose services require restricted access due to regulatory constraints. With RBAC, only the compliance engineering team can modify those entities, while broader developer groups can view, but not alter, related documentation or dependencies."

The updated portal has also been integrated with real-time Git synchronisation, supporting webhooks for immediate updates to YAML configuration files. This eliminates the need for polling or manual refreshing and supports OAuth and central tokens for flexible authentication across all major Git providers.

Harness explains, "For organisations with large, distributed engineering teams, keeping the developer portal in sync with Git can quickly become a bottleneck. Harness IDP now supports real-time updates via webhooks when YAML config files are updated in Git, eliminating the need for polling or manual refreshes. Teams can also make edits directly in the portal UI and push those changes back however they prefer, either directly or through a pull request. Authentication is flexible, with support for OAuth and central tokens, and it works with all major Git providers."

Usability for large teams

The new release aligns the entity organisation in the Harness-Native Platform Hierarchy, mapping catalog entities and workflows to real-world structures such as project, organisation, or account-level groupings. This enables tailored visibility for teams according to their functional or geographic targets, reducing clutter and the risk of error.

Harness states, "Harness IDP now aligns with our native platform hierarchy, enabling teams to create catalog entities and workflows at the Project, Organisation, or Account level. This mirrors how engineering teams are actually structured - by product line, business unit, or geography - so developers see only what's relevant to their work."

In addition to architectural changes, the user interface of the portal's catalog has been redesigned for greater clarity and efficiency. Developers are now able to filter services based on specific relevance, such as ownership or technology, and view integrated scorecards within the catalog. Metrics include service maturity, security compliance, and readiness for production.

On this point, the company shared the comment, "With this release, the IDP catalog has been redesigned for speed, clarity, and scale. Teams can now filter views based on what matters to them, like services they own or APIs used across the organisation. Scorecards are now built directly into the catalog view, giving developers and platform teams immediate visibility into key metrics like service maturity, security standards alignment, and production readiness. Each entity page clearly shows scope, ownership, and references, making it easier for teams to stay organised and aligned."

Onboarding and automation

The update introduces a guided, form-based approach to creating and managing catalog entities, in addition to continued support for YAML-in-Git workflows. The shift is aimed at easing barriers for engineers unfamiliar with configuration syntax and fostering wider platform adoption. The company remarked, "Catalog entities can now be created and managed directly through the Harness IDP UI using a guided, form-based experience – no YAML required. This removes a major barrier for developers unfamiliar with configuration syntax, making it easier for more teams to get started and contribute. For those who prefer a config-as-code workflow, the traditional YAML-in-Git approach is still fully supported."

For larger-scale organisations that depend on automation, Harness IDP now offers additional APIs allowing automatic catalog entity creation, auto-discovery, CLI integration, and Terraform provider support. Harness noted, "While UI is great for onboarding or making quick updates, large-scale adoption often demands automation. Harness IDP now includes new APIs to create and manage catalog entities, unlocking use cases like auto-discovery, auto-population, CLI integration, and Terraform provider support. The existing Catalog Ingestion API remains unchanged and will continue to function as before."

Backstage plugin compatibility

The IDP continues to extend compatibility with Backstage open-source plugins and supports teams seeking to build bespoke plugins on the framework. The company wrote, "Harness IDP continues to extend the Backstage open-source framework, so teams can keep using the Backstage plugin ecosystem they already know, or build their own custom plugins. Best of both worlds!"

"With this major release of Harness IDP, we're redefining what an enterprise-grade internal developer portal can be. Extended from the Backstage framework and supercharged for scale, Harness IDP now delivers real-time Git synchronisation, true org-level hierarchy, API-first extensibility, and the most powerful RBAC system in the category. Whether you're supporting 100s or 1,000s of developers, Harness IDP gives platform teams the structure, speed, and control they need to transform developer experience at the enterprise level – without compromise."

The series of updates are positioned to support organisations looking to scale software delivery without increasing risk or operational overhead for developer and platform teams.