Getting it into your agent
One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.
npx skills add vinzscam/backstage-skills --skill using-backstage-identitygit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/vinzscam/backstage-skillsWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/vinzscam/backstage-skills/using-backstage-identity)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/vinzscam/backstage-skills/using-backstage-identity"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/vinzscam/backstage-skills/using-backstage-identity/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/vinzscam/backstage-skills/using-backstage-identity"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/vinzscam/backstage-skills/using-backstage-identity.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00061 | $0.00474 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00030 | $0.00237 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00012 | $0.00095 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00006 | $0.00047 |
Grade A, and why
using-backstage-identity scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 9d ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
What it actually says
Backstage Identity Patterns
When to use this skill
- Plugin needs the current user's entity ref (e.g.
user:default/jdoe) - Plugin needs the user's profile info (display name, email, picture)
- Plugin needs ownership entity refs to filter "things owned by me"
- Plugin needs a Backstage token to call backend APIs as the current user
Choose the right pattern
| Situation | Pattern | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Get the current user (entity ref, ownership refs, profile) | useApi(identityApiRef).getBackstageIdentity() / getProfileInfo() |
references/current-user.md |
Two invocation modes
- Standalone (mid-development): user is editing an existing plugin. Read the reference and apply the pattern to whichever component needs it.
- Post-scaffold (called by
creating-backstage-plugin): apply the pattern to a freshly scaffolded plugin. The reference's "Post-scaffold usage" section names exactly which file to edit and what to insert.
Common gotchas
identityApiRefis imported from@backstage/frontend-plugin-apiin NFS plugins. (The same ref is also re-exported from@backstage/core-plugin-apifor legacy compatibility — for new plugins always use the NFS package.)getBackstageIdentity()is async and returns aBackstageUserIdentity— destructureuserEntityRefandownershipEntityRefsfrom it.- Don't store the result in a top-level variable; call from inside a hook (e.g. inside a React component or a
useAsynccallback) so it re-runs on identity change.
UI conventions
Use @backstage/ui for rendering when possible (Skeleton, Alert, Text, Flex, Button, …). See using-backstage-ui skill for the full component catalog and styling guidance.
What ships with it
1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 9d ago First seen · 35 lines · 61 tokens per session scan A a8de3f6368f9
using-backstage-identity is a skill published in the GitHub repository vinzscam/backstage-skills (4 stars, last pushed 14d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 61 tokens to every session and 474 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.
Other skills, from other repositories
visual-ralph
Visual Ralph orchestration for frontend UI from generated references, static references, or live URL targets, using $ralph with built-in visual verdict and pixel-diff evidence until the implementation matches and leaves a reproducible design system.
debug-optimize-lcp
Guides debugging and optimizing Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) using Chrome DevTools MCP tools. Use this skill whenever the user asks about LCP performance, slow page loads, Core Web Vitals optimization, or wants to understand why their page's main content takes too long to appear. Also use when the user mentions…
repro-admin
Reproduce an EmDash admin UI bug. Attach a container, start the demo dev server, drive the admin with agent-browser using the dev-bypass session, and capture the reproduction as screenshots plus a replayable transcript.
create-site
Creates a new Power Pages code site (SPA) using React, Angular, Vue, or Astro. Guides through the full process from initial concept to deployed site: requirements discovery, scaffolding, component planning, design, implementation, validation, and deployment. Use when the user wants to create, build, or scaffold a new…
prototype-web
A clickable, high-fidelity web product prototype with navigation, a hero section, feature cards, steps, social proof, and optional pricing. It is designed to resemble a finished landing page while remaining a prototype.
menu-transitions-rtl
Animate react-horizontal-scrolling-menu scrolling and build right-to-left menus: noPolyfill defaults to true since v8, so transitionDuration (default 500), a custom-easing-function transitionBehavior, and per-call ScrollOptions { duration, boundary } on scrollToItem/scrollNext/scrollPrev are silently ignored unless…