# Accessing Public resources from the Backend

> The Backstage backend restricts what resources can be fetched by default. This describes how to add sources which can be accessed.

*Published: 2022-04-26T08:33:00.0Z*


## Introduction

The Backstage backend restricts what resources can be fetched by default.
This guide describes how to configure this list. This would allow you to do something like
fetch a public API definition in a catalog info file.

By default only _.example.com and _.mozilla.org are allowed.

## Configuration

Navigate to `administration/backend` in Roadie you should be able to click "add item" then enter the hostname of
the resource you want to access in the host field and click "Save" then "Apply & restart".

![allow reading](./allow-reading.webp)

If you want to restrict access further you can add a list of paths and only resources under those paths will be allowed.

## See Also

- [Backstage documentation on URL readers](https://backstage.io/docs/backend-system/core-services/url-reader/)
- [Substitutions in the descriptor format](https://backstage.io/docs/features/software-catalog/descriptor-format#substitutions-in-the-descriptor-format)