Internal Developer Platform

An IDP is not "Kubernetes with a UI bolted on." It is a product, built by a team, for one customer segment: the engineers who have to ship through it every day. Platform teams that forget this build infrastructure nobody asked for, then wonder why adoption stalls and shadow processes reappear.

The test of a good IDP is not how much it automates — it's whether developers choose to use it when they don't have to. A platform earns adoption by being the fastest path to done, not the only path allowed.

For standing up a portal — catalog, scaffolder templates, and adoption metrics — read references/building-a-portal.md.

1. Treat the platform as a product with real users