Beyond Helm Install: The Real Configuration Guide for Backstage on Kubernetes

This article exposes a critical gap in Backstage deployment guides: the official Helm chart defaults to a demo image that silently ignores configuration overrides when placed incorrectly in the hierarchy. The guide matters because it shows the prerequisite step—building a custom Docker image before deploying with Helm—and explains why configuration changes vanish without obvious errors. Understanding this distinction prevents teams from wasting weeks debugging issues that are actually rooted in the chart's architecture, not Backstage itself.