Exposing Local EventCatalog

What is EventCatalog?

EventCatalog is an open-source, docs-as-code tool for event-driven and microservice architectures. It lets you describe domains, services, and messages (events/commands/queries), attach schemas (e.g., AsyncAPI/OpenAPI), and keep everything discoverable for your teams. It’s technology-agnostic, pluggable, and self-hosted.

Why EventCatalog?

Documenting events in a clear and consistent way is often complex and hard to navigate. This is where EventCatalog truly shines. It provides a powerful portal that lets you explore events from different perspectives; making it easy to understand how your architecture fits together and how events and commands flow between services.

EventCatalog is the perfect tool for event documentation and serves as a central portal because it offers:

• Single source of truth → for producers, consumers, channels, and schemas.
• Visual browsing → navigate and search through events, commands, and channels in an intuitive, visual way.
• Discoverability for developers → a searchable catalog of events, services, and domains with ownership context.
• Safer change management → track schema evolution and version history over time.
• Cross-team alignment → diagrams, tables, and embeddable views (e.g., Backstage plugin, OpenAPI/EventBridge plugins).
• Docs-as-code workflow → markdown-based, generator-friendly, and CI/CD ready.

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Quickstart: Run & Expose EventCatalog locally

1. Scaffold a catalog

npx @eventcatalog/create-eventcatalog@latest my-catalog cd my-catalog
npm install

You can scaffold a default or empty catalog; the CLI creates the structure for you.) More info about setting up EventCatalog

2. Build the EventCatalog & Preview

npm run build && npm run preview

By default the EventCatalog preview server runs at http://localhost:3000.

3. Expose EventCatalog

Goal

Make http://localhost:3000 reachable via a secure, shareable URL for a few teammates — without deploying.

Concept: Inspectr can forward a public URL to a local EventCatalog. You work on documenting your EventCatalog locally; teammates can open the public URL.

Use your Inspectr CLI to expose the local port where EventCatalog runs (3000). Include an access code / channel code so only invited teammates can open it.

npx @inspectr/inspectr --backend=http://localhost:3000 --expose

• Output: Inspectr prints a public URL.
• Teammates open: https://<inspectr-url>
• EventCatalog stays at localhost:3000 on your machine; Inspectr handles the secure relay.

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Going further with EventCatalog

• Explore the demo to understand structure and navigation. EventCatalog Demo
• Plugins: pull in OpenAPI or EventBridge resources to enrich services and messages. EventCatalog Plugins
• Backstage integration: embed EventCatalog views in your internal developer portal. EventCatalog Backstage
• Hosting options: containerize/server deploy when you’re ready to make it permanent. EventCatalog Hosting

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Summary

1. Run EventCatalog npm run build && npm run preview (serves on http://localhost:3000).

2. Share it with teammates via Inspectr: npx @inspectr/inspectr --backend=http://localhost:3000 --expose

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