# Istio

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/istio/  
**Website:** https://istio.io/  
**APIs profiled:** 14

Istio is an open-source service mesh platform that provides a comprehensive solution for managing, securing, and monitoring microservices in a distributed system. It acts as a middle layer between services, handling communication, routing, and load balancing, as well as providing visibility into the traffic flowing between services. Istio also offers advanced security features such as access control, authentication, and encryption to ensure that communication between services is secure.

## Kin Score — 38.9 / 100 (thin)

Scored 2026-08-20 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 38.9).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 64.8 |
| Contract Quality | 66.1 |
| Governance | 9.8 |
| Contract Governance | 9.8 |
| Operational Transparency | 34.2 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 38.1 |
| Commercial Clarity | 13.2 |
| Access Clarity | 13.2 |

## Agent readiness — 29.1 (agent-aware)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | yes |
| Agentic Access | derived |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | yes |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | no |
| Rate Limit Signal | documented |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Free · Self-serve signup — onboarding: self-serve, pricing: free, trial: no (confidence: high).

## APIs (14)

- **Istio Telemetry API** — The Istio Telemetry API (telemetry.istio.io) provides configuration resources for managing observability within an Istio service mesh. The Telemetry resource enables flexible co...
- **Istio Mesh Config API** — The Istio Mesh Config API (istio.mesh.v1alpha1) provides global configuration for the Istio service mesh control plane and data plane proxy behavior. It includes MeshConfig for ...
- **Istio Operator API** — The Istio Operator API (istio.operator.v1alpha1) defines the IstioOperator custom resource used to install, configure, and upgrade Istio on Kubernetes clusters. It provides a de...
- **Istio AuthorizationPolicy API** — Fine-grained access control policies for workloads
- **Istio DestinationRule API** — Policies applied to traffic after routing (load balancing, connection pool, outlier detection)
- **Istio Gateway API** — Load balancer configuration at the edge of the mesh
- **Istio PeerAuthentication API** — Mutual TLS configuration for peer-to-peer communication
- **Istio RequestAuthentication API** — JWT-based request authentication policies
- **Istio ServiceEntry API** — External service entries added to the mesh service registry
- **Istio Sidecar API** — Sidecar proxy configuration for inbound and outbound traffic
- **Istio VirtualService API** — HTTP/TCP routing rules for traffic management
- **Istio WasmPlugin API** — WebAssembly plugin configuration for Envoy proxy extensions
- **Istio WorkloadEntry API** — Non-Kubernetes workload (VM/bare metal) endpoint properties
- **Istio WorkloadGroup API** — Collection of workload instances sharing common properties

## Agentic access (1)

- **Istio Agentic Access** — 60 operations · 36 acting

## Security (2)

- **Istio Authentication** — http · 1 scheme
- **Istio Domain Security** — TLSv1.3 · HSTS

## Plans (1)

- **Istio Plans Pricing**

## Tags

CNCF, Kubernetes, Microservices, Open-Source, Service Mesh

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/istio/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.