# Spartacus: the Angular storefront SAP ships for SAP Commerce Cloud

> Spartacus is a lean, Angular-based JavaScript storefront that talks to SAP Commerce Cloud exclusively through the Commerce REST API, published as a set of libraries rather than a single application. Since version 5.0 it is the open source base of the officially supported SAP composable storefront, which is included in the SAP Commerce Cloud licence.

**SAP/spartacus** — Spartacus is a lean, Angular-based JavaScript storefront for SAP Commerce Cloud that communicates exclusively through the Commerce REST API.

- Repository: https://github.com/SAP/spartacus
- Stars: 785 · Forks: 418
- Language: TypeScript
- License: Apache-2.0
- Published: 2026-10-20 · Updated: 2026-10-20 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/sap-spartacus

## Open source project and supported product

Spartacus is a lean, Angular-based JavaScript storefront for SAP Commerce Cloud, and it talks to SAP Commerce Cloud exclusively through the Commerce REST API. That exclusivity is the defining constraint of the project.

The README also explains the relationship between the open source repository and the shipped product. Starting with version 5.0, SAP Commerce Cloud composable storefront is the name for the official release of the project Spartacus libraries published by SAP, and the officially supported composable storefront is available to SAP Commerce Cloud customers, with the documentation on the SAP Help Portal. Composable storefront is based off the Spartacus open source code and is included in the SAP Commerce Cloud licence at no extra cost, with a roll-forward update policy.

So there are two things here. There is the open source library set in this repository, and there is a supported commercial product built from it. On-premise customers may still use the open source libraries, and there is a document on self-publishing Spartacus libraries using the open source code.

The versioning history explains why the numbers in the repository look the way they do. The previous release of composable storefront was version 6.8, and starting with version 2211.19 the composable storefront aligned its versioning with SAP Commerce Cloud, with a link to the changes to release numbering and update policies.

The project is Apache-2.0 licensed, carries a REUSE status badge and has a LICENSES directory and a NOTICE.txt, so the licensing metadata is handled with the REUSE tooling rather than left as a single file.

## The five properties the project claims

The README describes what Spartacus is with five adjectives, and each one is a design commitment rather than a marketing phrase.

Extendable means the design assumes you will adopt new versions over time without losing your own work, and the documentation is candid about the cost of that promise: breaking changes will very likely be introduced up until the 1.0 launch.

Upgradable means the code is published and used as libraries following semantic versioning conventions, and that using the libraries makes you upgradable for minor and patch releases. The pairing of extendable and upgradable is the whole argument of the project, since a storefront that you cannot customise is a dead end and one you cannot upgrade is a maintenance trap.

Progressive refers to the Progressive Web Application checklist, and the project describes it as a journey towards full compliance, aiming to add support for all the major features of a PWA-enabled storefront so the customer experience does not depend on the device or location.

Open Source is stated as a fact about who does the work, with the SAP Commerce Cloud team developing it and the project keen to welcome contributors and to build an inclusive, active development community, with a contributing document.

Modern is the odd one out, since it points at a broader direction, a customisable yet upgradable technology for SAP Commerce Cloud installations.

## What the storefront actually covers

The core storefront features are listed plainly, and the list is the base of a working shop rather than a framework of components.

There is a home page, search, categories, product details, a cart page, adding to cart, checkout and order history. That is a complete purchase path, which is the point: a composable storefront for a commerce platform has to do the standard things correctly before it can do anything distinctive.

The project is distributed as libraries rather than an application, and the recommended approach is to build your storefront application from ready-made libraries. Cloning and building from source is possible, the README says, but upgrading is not as simple, which is a plain statement of the trade between owning the source and being able to update it.

Adding the libraries to an Angular application is a schematic:

```bash
ng add @spartacus/schematics
```

That command sets up and installs the Spartacus libraries into an Angular project, with the official schematics documentation linked for the prerequisites and the full instructions.

The repository layout reflects the layering. There are core-libs, feature-libs and integration-libs directories, and those three are the workspace entries in the package manifest, with the package name storefrontapp at version 2612.0.0, authored by SAP and the Spartacus team. There are also a projects directory, a docs directory, a testing directory and a tools directory, plus a cluster of shell scripts that run the end to end tests against different Commerce modules, named for the areas they cover: asm, ccv2, cpq, cust, mcs and product-configurator. A lighthouserc.yml at the root points at the performance testing setup for the Progressive Web App goal.

## Where Spartacus is the wrong choice

The first limitation is that there is no standalone product. Spartacus can only be used with a SAP Commerce Cloud instance through the Commerce APIs, so the storefront is one half of a system and the back end is the other. A team that wanted a headless front end for a different commerce platform gets nothing, and a team that wanted to try the library before committing to Commerce cannot run it against anything else.

The second is the Angular commitment. A lean JavaScript storefront on top of SAP Commerce Cloud is still an Angular application, and the requirements documentation is organised per major version, with separate pages for the 2211 Angular development environment, for 6.x and for 5.x. That is three different environment setups to understand, and the version your installation is on decides which one.

The third is the version mismatch between front end and back end. The documentation warns that some Spartacus features require API endpoints only available in newer versions of SAP Commerce Cloud, with a compatibility matrix on the Help Portal for the back end requirements and another for the feature to endpoint mapping. So the front end version and the Commerce version constrain each other, and that is a constraint to plan for rather than discover during an upgrade.

There is also a commercial dimension to weigh. The officially supported composable storefront is what SAP ships and documents, it is included in the SAP Commerce Cloud licence, and it follows a roll-forward update policy tied to SAP's own release train. If you want the supported path you are on SAP's schedule; if you want to self-publish the open source libraries you are on your own, and the README has a document for that.

## Conclusion

Spartacus fits a SAP Commerce Cloud customer who wants a supported, modern storefront built on the Commerce REST API and who accepts the Angular dependency and the SAP release train. It does not fit a team on a different commerce platform, or a team that wants a finished store they can run without a Commerce back end. Before adopting it, read the composable storefront documentation rather than the open source README, because the officially supported product has its own versioning aligned with SAP Commerce Cloud since 2211.19, and check the compatibility matrix, since some features need API endpoints that only exist in newer Commerce versions.

## FAQ

### What is Spartacus and what does it talk to?

It is a lean, Angular-based JavaScript storefront for SAP Commerce Cloud that talks to the platform exclusively through the Commerce REST API. It is published as a set of libraries rather than one application, and the recommended approach is to build your storefront from those libraries.

### What is the difference between Spartacus and the SAP composable storefront?

Starting with version 5.0, SAP Commerce Cloud composable storefront is the name for the official release of the Spartacus libraries, and it is what SAP supports and documents, included in the SAP Commerce Cloud licence at no extra cost with a roll-forward update policy. On-premise customers may still use the open source libraries, and there is a document on self-publishing them.

### How do I add Spartacus to an Angular application?

With the Spartacus schematics, using `ng add @spartacus/schematics`, which sets up and installs the Spartacus libraries into your Angular project. The official schematics documentation on the SAP Help Portal lists the prerequisites and the full instructions, and the repository also lists example todo backends built with different frameworks.

### Which storefront features does Spartacus provide out of the box?

The core features are a home page, search, categories, product details, a cart page, adding to cart, checkout and order history. That is a complete purchase path, and the documentation notes that some features additionally require API endpoints available only in newer versions of SAP Commerce Cloud, with a compatibility matrix on the Help Portal.

### How is the Spartacus project licensed and versioned?

It is Apache-2.0 licensed, with REUSE licensing metadata, a LICENSES directory and a NOTICE.txt. Since version 2211.19 the composable storefront has aligned its versioning with SAP Commerce Cloud, and the previous release of composable storefront was version 6.8, with the open source libraries following semantic versioning.

## Sources

- [Issues](https://github.com/SAP/spartacus/issues)
- [License: Apache-2.0](https://github.com/SAP/spartacus/blob/develop/LICENSE)
- [README](https://github.com/SAP/spartacus/blob/develop/README.md)
- [Releases](https://github.com/SAP/spartacus/releases)
- [SAP/spartacus on GitHub](https://github.com/SAP/spartacus)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/sap-spartacus