Spotify engineers at QCon London 2026 demonstrated how they combine their internal developer platform (Portal, built on Backstage) with Anthropic's Claude AI to dramatically accelerate internal tool development. The workflow uses natural language prompts to generate plugin scaffolding and code via Claude, then Portal Studio provides a local preview environment to validate and refine the generated code before publishing. This approach addresses the common problem of small but important internal tools being deprioritized due to insufficient engineering resources. The platform layer enforces governance through standardized templates, permissions, ownership models, and approved integrations, while AI handles the speed of initial code generation. The result reduces internal tool delivery time from months to days.
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The Hidden Cost of Small Internal ToolsInternal Developer PortalsPortal StudioAI-Assisted Tool CreationLive Demo: From Prompt to PluginPlatform Engineering and GovernanceScaling Internal Tooling Across the OrganizationAI and Platform EngineeringAbout the AuthorSort: