diff --git a/packages/core-api/src/apis/definitions/DiscoveryApi.ts b/packages/core-api/src/apis/definitions/DiscoveryApi.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b0773086c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/core-api/src/apis/definitions/DiscoveryApi.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2020 Spotify AB
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+import { createApiRef } from '../ApiRef';
+
+/**
+ * The discovery API is used to provide a mechanism for plugins to
+ * discover the endpoint to use to talk to their backend counterpart.
+ *
+ * The purpose of the discovery API is to allow for many different deployment
+ * setups and routing methods through a central configuration, instead
+ * of letting each individual plugin manage that configuration.
+ *
+ * Implementations of the discovery API can be a simple as a URL pattern
+ * using the pluginId, but could also have overrides for individual plugins,
+ * or query a separate discovery service.
+ */
+export type DiscoveryApi = {
+  /**
+   * Returns the HTTP base backend URL for a given plugin, without a trailing slash.
+   *
+   * This method must always be called just before making a request. as opposed to
+   * fetching the URL when constructing an API client. That is to ensure that more
+   * flexible routing patterns can be supported.
+   *
+   * For example, asking for the URL for `auth` may return something
+   * like `https://backstage.example.com/api/auth`
+   */
+  getBaseUrl(pluginId: string): Promise<string>;
+};
+
+export const discoveryApiRef = createApiRef<DiscoveryApi>({
+  id: 'core.discovery',
+  description: 'Provides service discovery of backend plugins',
+});
diff --git a/packages/core-api/src/apis/definitions/index.ts b/packages/core-api/src/apis/definitions/index.ts
index c5d4a15117..678dce9e32 100644
--- a/packages/core-api/src/apis/definitions/index.ts
+++ b/packages/core-api/src/apis/definitions/index.ts
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ export * from './AppThemeApi';
 export * from './ConfigApi';
 export * from './ErrorApi';
 export * from './FeatureFlagsApi';
+export * from './DiscoveryApi';
 export * from './IdentityApi';
 export * from './OAuthRequestApi';
 export * from './StorageApi';
diff --git a/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/DiscoveryApi/UrlPatternDiscovery.test.ts b/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/DiscoveryApi/UrlPatternDiscovery.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9597443b98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/DiscoveryApi/UrlPatternDiscovery.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2020 Spotify AB
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+import { UrlPatternDiscovery } from './UrlPatternDiscovery';
+
+describe('UrlPatternDiscovery', () => {
+  it('should not require interpolation', async () => {
+    const discoveryApi = UrlPatternDiscovery.compile('http://example.com');
+    await expect(discoveryApi.getBaseUrl('my-plugin')).resolves.toBe(
+      'http://example.com',
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('should use a plain pattern', async () => {
+    const discoveryApi = UrlPatternDiscovery.compile(
+      'http://localhost:7000/{{ pluginId }}',
+    );
+    await expect(discoveryApi.getBaseUrl('my-plugin')).resolves.toBe(
+      'http://localhost:7000/my-plugin',
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('should allow for multiple interpolation points', async () => {
+    const discoveryApi = UrlPatternDiscovery.compile(
+      'https://{{pluginId   }}.example.com/api/{{ pluginId}}',
+    );
+    await expect(discoveryApi.getBaseUrl('my-plugin')).resolves.toBe(
+      'https://my-plugin.example.com/api/my-plugin',
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('should validate that the pattern is a valid URL', () => {
+    expect(() => {
+      UrlPatternDiscovery.compile('example.com');
+    }).toThrow('Invalid discovery URL pattern, Invalid URL: example.com');
+
+    expect(() => {
+      UrlPatternDiscovery.compile('http://');
+    }).toThrow('Invalid discovery URL pattern, Invalid URL: http://');
+
+    expect(() => {
+      UrlPatternDiscovery.compile('abc123');
+    }).toThrow('Invalid discovery URL pattern, Invalid URL: abc123');
+
+    expect(() => {
+      UrlPatternDiscovery.compile('http://example.com:{{pluginId}}');
+    }).toThrow(
+      'Invalid discovery URL pattern, Invalid URL: http://example.com:pluginId',
+    );
+
+    expect(() => {
+      UrlPatternDiscovery.compile('/{{pluginId}}');
+    }).toThrow('Invalid discovery URL pattern, Invalid URL: /pluginId');
+
+    expect(() => {
+      UrlPatternDiscovery.compile('http://localhost/{{pluginId}}?forbidden');
+    }).toThrow('Invalid discovery URL pattern, URL must not have a query');
+
+    expect(() => {
+      UrlPatternDiscovery.compile('http://localhost/{{pluginId}}#forbidden');
+    }).toThrow('Invalid discovery URL pattern, URL must not have a hash');
+
+    expect(() => {
+      UrlPatternDiscovery.compile('http://localhost/{{pluginId}}/');
+    }).toThrow('Invalid discovery URL pattern, URL must not end with a slash');
+
+    expect(() => {
+      UrlPatternDiscovery.compile('http://localhost/');
+    }).toThrow('Invalid discovery URL pattern, URL must not end with a slash');
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/DiscoveryApi/UrlPatternDiscovery.ts b/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/DiscoveryApi/UrlPatternDiscovery.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ca48784584
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/DiscoveryApi/UrlPatternDiscovery.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2020 Spotify AB
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+import { DiscoveryApi } from '../../definitions/DiscoveryApi';
+
+/**
+ * UrlPatternDiscovery is a lightweight DiscoveryApi implementation.
+ * It uses a single template string to construct URLs for each plugin.
+ */
+export class UrlPatternDiscovery implements DiscoveryApi {
+  /**
+   * Creates a new UrlPatternDiscovery given a template. The the only
+   * interpolation done for the template is to replace instances of `{{pluginId}}`
+   * with the ID of the plugin being requested.
+   *
+   * Example pattern: `http://localhost:7000/api/{{ pluginId }}`
+   */
+  static compile(pattern: string): UrlPatternDiscovery {
+    const parts = pattern.split(/\{\{\s*pluginId\s*\}\}/);
+
+    try {
+      const urlStr = parts.join('pluginId');
+      const url = new URL(urlStr);
+      if (url.hash) {
+        throw new Error('URL must not have a hash');
+      }
+      if (url.search) {
+        throw new Error('URL must not have a query');
+      }
+      if (urlStr.endsWith('/')) {
+        throw new Error('URL must not end with a slash');
+      }
+    } catch (error) {
+      throw new Error(`Invalid discovery URL pattern, ${error.message}`);
+    }
+
+    return new UrlPatternDiscovery(parts);
+  }
+
+  private constructor(private readonly parts: string[]) {}
+
+  async getBaseUrl(pluginId: string): Promise<string> {
+    return this.parts.join(pluginId);
+  }
+}
diff --git a/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/DiscoveryApi/index.ts b/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/DiscoveryApi/index.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..60a5b815e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/DiscoveryApi/index.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2020 Spotify AB
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+// This folder contains implementations for all core APIs.
+//
+// Plugins should rely on these APIs for functionality as much as possible.
+
+export { UrlPatternDiscovery } from './UrlPatternDiscovery';
diff --git a/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/index.ts b/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/index.ts
index e6d23fee21..30aeb81d44 100644
--- a/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/index.ts
+++ b/packages/core-api/src/apis/implementations/index.ts
@@ -24,5 +24,6 @@ export * from './AlertApi';
 export * from './AppThemeApi';
 export * from './ConfigApi';
 export * from './ErrorApi';
+export * from './DiscoveryApi';
 export * from './OAuthRequestApi';
 export * from './StorageApi';