Service Catalog
Build and maintain a comprehensive service catalog by scanning infrastructure-as-code, config files, and project metadata. Answers "what services do we run, who owns them, what do they depend on, and are they healthy?"
Use when: "list all our services", "what microservices do we have", "service inventory", "who owns this service", "map our infrastructure", "service dependencies", "platform engineering audit", or setting up an internal developer portal.
Commands
1. discover — Auto-Discover Services
Scan the workspace for service definitions across all common patterns.
Docker Services
# Docker Compose services
find . -maxdepth 4 \( -name "docker-compose.yml" -o -name "docker-compose.yaml" -o -name "compose.yml" -o -name "compose.yaml" \) \
-not -path '*/node_modules/*' -not -path '*/.git/*' 2>/dev/null | while read f; do
echo "=== $f ==="
# Extract service names
python3 -c "
import sys
in_services = False
indent = 0
for line in open('$f'):
stripped = line.rstrip()
if stripped == 'services:':
in_services = True
continue
if in_services:
if stripped and not stripped.startswith(' ') and not stripped.startswith('#'):
break
if stripped and not stripped.startswith(' ') or (len(stripped) > 0 and stripped[0] != ' ' and stripped != ''):
break
if stripped.endswith(':') and stripped.startswith(' ') and not stripped.startswith(' '):
name = stripped.strip().rstrip(':')
print(f' Service: {name}')
" 2>/dev/null || grep -E '^\s{2}\w+:' "$f" | grep -v '^\s{4}' | sed 's/://;s/^\s*/ Service: /'
done
# Dockerfiles (each usually = one service)
find . -maxdepth 4 \( -name "Dockerfile" -o -name "Dockerfile.*" -o -name "*.Dockerfile" \) \
-not -path '*/node_modules/*' -not -path '*/.git/*' 2>/dev/null | while read f; do
DIR=$(dirname "$f")
BASE=$(head -5 "$f" | grep -oP '(?<=FROM )\S+' | head -1)
echo "Dockerfile: $f (base: ${BASE:-unknown}) — dir: $DIR"
done
Kubernetes Manifests
# K8s Deployments, StatefulSets, Services, CronJobs
find . -maxdepth 5 -name "*.yaml" -o -name "*.yml" | \
xargs grep -l "kind:\s*\(Deployment\|StatefulSet\|Service\|CronJob\|DaemonSet\|Job\)" 2>/dev/null | \
grep -v node_modules | while read f; do
echo "=== $f ==="
grep -E "^\s*(kind|name|namespace|image):" "$f" | head -10
done
# Helm charts
find . -maxdepth 4 -name "Chart.yaml" -not -path '*/node_modules/*' 2>/dev/null | while read f; do
echo "=== Helm Chart: $f ==="
grep -E "^(name|version|description|appVersion):" "$f"
done
Application Configs
# Node.js services (package.json with a start script)
find . -maxdepth 3 -name "package.json" -not -path '*/node_modules/*' 2>/dev/null | while read f; do
HAS_START=$(python3 -c "import json; d=json.load(open('$f')); print('yes' if 'start' in d.get('scripts',{}) else 'no')" 2>/dev/null)
if [ "$HAS_START" = "yes" ]; then
NAME=$(python3 -c "import json; print(json.load(open('$f')).get('name','unknown'))" 2>/dev/null)
echo "Node service: $NAME ($f)"
fi
done
# Python services (with main entry point)
find . -maxdepth 3 -name "pyproject.toml" -not -path '*/vendor/*' 2>/dev/null | while read f; do
DIR=$(dirname "$f")
echo "Python project: $f"
grep -E "^(name|version)" "$f" | head -2
done
# Go services
find . -maxdepth 3 -name "go.mod" 2>/dev/null | while read f; do
MODULE=$(head -1 "$f" | awk '{print $2}')
echo "Go module: $MODULE ($f)"
done
# Procfile (Heroku/Dokku)
find . -maxdepth 3 -name "Procfile" 2>/dev/null | while read f; do
echo "=== Procfile: $f ==="
cat "$f"
done
# Systemd units
find . -maxdepth 4 -name "*.service" -not -path '*/.git/*' 2>/dev/null | while read f; do
echo "Systemd unit: $f"
grep -E "^(Description|ExecStart|After|Requires)=" "$f" 2>/dev/null
done
CI/CD Pipelines (reveal deployed services)
# GitHub Actions deploy workflows
find .github/workflows -name "*.yml" -o -name "*.yaml" 2>/dev/null | \
xargs grep -l "deploy" 2>/dev/null | while read f; do
echo "Deploy workflow: $f"
grep -E "^\s*(name|runs-on|env):" "$f" | head -5
done
# GitLab CI deploy stages
grep -A5 "deploy" .gitlab-ci.yml 2>/dev/null | head -20
2. catalog — Generate Service Catalog
After discovery, compile into a structured catalog. For each service, extract:
- Name: Service identifier
- Type: API, worker, cron job, database, cache, queue, frontend, gateway
- Tech stack: Language, framework, runtime
- Port: Exposed port(s)
- Dependencies: Other services it connects to (from env vars, config, imports)
- Owner: From CODEOWNERS, package.json author, git blame
- Repository: Git remote URL
- Health endpoint: /health, /healthz, /ready, /status
- Documentation: README, wiki links
# Detect service dependencies from env vars and config
rg -n "(DATABASE_URL|REDIS_URL|RABBITMQ_URL|KAFKA_BROKERS|MONGO_URI|API_URL|SERVICE_URL)" \
-g '!node_modules' -g '!vendor' -g '!dist' --type-not binary 2>/dev/null
# Detect inter-service communication
rg -n "(fetch|axios|http\.get|requests\.get|grpc|amqp|redis)" \
-g '!node_modules' -g '!vendor' -g '!dist' -g '!*.test.*' -g '!*.spec.*' --type-not binary 2>/dev/null | \
grep -oP 'https?://[a-zA-Z0-9._/-]+' | sort -u
# Check for CODEOWNERS
cat CODEOWNERS .github/CODEOWNERS docs/CODEOWNERS 2>/dev/null
# Check for health endpoints
rg -n "(\/health|\/healthz|\/ready|\/status|\/ping)" \
-g '!node_modules' -g '!vendor' --type-not binary 2>/dev/null | head -20
Output a catalog document:
# Service Catalog
Generated: [date] | Services: N | Owners: N teams
## Services
### api-gateway
- **Type:** API Gateway
- **Stack:** Node.js 20, Express
- **Port:** 3000
- **Owner:** @platform-team
- **Dependencies:** auth-service, user-service, redis
- **Health:** GET /health
- **Repo:** github.com/org/api-gateway
- **Docs:** docs/api-gateway.md
### user-service
...
3. deps — Dependency Graph
Map service-to-service dependencies:
api-gateway → auth-service → postgres
api-gateway → user-service → postgres, redis
api-gateway → notification-service → redis, smtp
worker → queue (rabbitmq) → notification-service
frontend → api-gateway
Detect:
- Circular dependencies: A → B → C → A
- Single points of failure: Service depended on by >3 others with no redundancy
- Missing health checks: Services without /health endpoints
- Orphaned services: Defined in config but not referenced by any other service
4. health — Check Service Health
For services with known health endpoints or docker containers:
# Check local docker containers
docker ps --format "{{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}\t{{.Ports}}" 2>/dev/null
# Check systemd services
systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running 2>/dev/null | grep -v systemd
# Ping health endpoints
for endpoint in $(rg -o "https?://localhost:[0-9]+/(health|healthz|ready|status)" -g '*.{yml,yaml,json,env}' 2>/dev/null | sort -u); do
STATUS=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --connect-timeout 3 "$endpoint" 2>/dev/null)
echo "$endpoint → $STATUS"
done
5. owners — Ownership Report
Map services to teams/individuals:
# From CODEOWNERS
cat CODEOWNERS .github/CODEOWNERS 2>/dev/null | grep -v '^#' | grep -v '^$'
# From package.json author/maintainers
find . -maxdepth 3 -name "package.json" -not -path '*/node_modules/*' 2>/dev/null | while read f; do
python3 -c "
import json
d = json.load(open('$f'))
name = d.get('name', 'unknown')
author = d.get('author', 'unassigned')
if isinstance(author, dict): author = author.get('name', 'unassigned')
print(f'{name}: {author}')
" 2>/dev/null
done
# From git blame (most active contributor per directory)
find . -maxdepth 2 -type d -not -path '*/.git*' -not -path '*/node_modules*' | while read d; do
TOP=$(git log --since="90 days ago" --format="%an" -- "$d" 2>/dev/null | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -1)
if [ -n "$TOP" ]; then
echo "$d: $TOP"
fi
done 2>/dev/null
Report unowned services as risks.
6. drift — Detect Catalog Drift
Compare the generated catalog against a previously saved one (.service-catalog.json):
- New services added (not in catalog)
- Services removed (in catalog but no longer found)
- Configuration changes (ports, dependencies, tech stack)
- Ownership changes
Run in CI to catch undocumented infrastructure changes.
Output Formats
- text (default): Human-readable report with sections per service
- json: Machine-readable
{services: [{name, type, stack, port, deps, owner, health, repo}], graph: {edges: []}}
- markdown: Wiki-ready document with tables and dependency diagram (Mermaid)
- mermaid: Pure Mermaid diagram of service dependencies
Notes
- Works on monorepos and multi-repo setups (scan from repo root or organization root)
- Does not require running services — discovers from config files and code
- For live service health, services must be reachable from the scan environment
- Ownership detection is heuristic (CODEOWNERS > package.json > git blame) — review and correct
- Save catalog as
.service-catalog.json to enable drift detection
- Works alongside internal developer portal tools (Backstage, Port, Cortex) as a lightweight alternative or seed data source
