add-entity-ref-to-location

Name: add-entity-ref-to-location codemod
Availability: InStock

Backstage 1.50.0 codemod: Adds the required entityRef field to Location object literals from @backstage/catalog-client.

Background

In Backstage 1.50.0, the Location type in @backstage/catalog-client now includes a required entityRef: string field. Any code constructing or mocking Location objects (tests, fixtures, mock implementations) must include this field.

Production code consuming Location from API responses is unaffected -- the backend already populates entityRef.

What it does

Detects Location object literals with explicit type annotations (: Location, satisfies Location, as Location)
Detects nested Location objects inside AddLocationResponse-typed variables
Adds entityRef: 'location:default/example' with a TODO(backstage-codemod) comment for manual follow-up
Skips objects that use spread ({ ...existingLocation }) since they inherit the field
Skips objects that already have an entityRef property

Usage

bash

Before / After

ts

ts

Notes

The real entityRef format is location:default/generated-<sha1hex>. The codemod uses a placeholder since the actual value cannot be computed statically.
After running the codemod, search for TODO(backstage-codemod) to find all locations that need manual attention.
The optional AI fixup step (--param aiFixup=true) can handle edge cases like inferred types, dynamic mock setups, and test assertion objects.

1 import type { Location } from '@backstage/catalog-client';
2
3 const locs: Array<Location> = [
4 {
5 id: 'abc123',
6 type: 'url',
7 target: 'https://example.com/a.yaml',
8 },
9 ];
10

Registry

Ready to contribute?

backstage/add-entity-ref-to-location

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