Kgateway

kgateway is the most widely deployed gateway in Kubernetes for microservices and AI agents. It is a feature-rich, fast, and flexible Kubernetes-native ingress controller and next-generation API gateway built on top of Envoy proxy and the Kubernetes Gateway API.

Kgateway publishes 7 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including AIBackend API, Backend API, DirectResponse API, and 4 more. Tagged areas include Gateways and API Gateway.

The Kgateway catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

Kgateway’s developer surface includes authentication, engineering blog, documentation, GitHub presence, and 8 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

29.0/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 22/100 agent aware Front door AI 4/6 moderate self hosted · Apache-2.0 Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-10-23 · rubric v0.25.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

1 published contract

Gateways API Gateway

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-10-23 · rubric v0.25.0

Composite quality — 29.0/100 · thin

Contract Quality 10.9 / 19

Developer Ergonomics 3.6 / 15

Access Clarity 1.2 / 15

Operational Transparency 1.3 / 10

Contract Governance 0.9 / 9

Discoverability 4.3 / 8

Regulatory Posture 2.5 / 15

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 22/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Horizontal (data, software, accessibility, platform) regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.

The six quality facets above are damped to 75 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 25. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 75% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/kgateway: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Markets this provider is in provisional

The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market: its position, and how deep its integrations go. Depth is only comparable within a position. Provisional and unweighted: not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.

Market	Position	Depth	Registered MCP server	Declares compatibility
API Management (gateways, portals, service mesh, proxies)	undeclared	-	-	1
OpenSSF Best Practices Badge Holders	undeclared	-	-	1

Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted. Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.

APIs 7

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Kgateway AIBackend API

Configure AI backend providers with support for LLM providers such as OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, and Gemini. Specify provider configuration and priority groups for AI routing.

Kgateway Backend API

Define routable backends such as AI providers (OpenAI, Azure, Gemini), AWS Lambda functions, or static servers for use by Gateways. Reference Backend resources in HTTPRoute to r...

Kgateway DirectResponse API

Configure Gateways to directly respond to incoming requests with a custom HTTP response code and body without forwarding to a backend service.

Kgateway GatewayExtension API

Integrate external services with a Gateway such as external auth, rate limiting, and external processing. Serves as a configuration bridge between kgateway and external services...

Kgateway GatewayParameters API

Customize gateway infrastructure deployment settings including replicas, container configuration, pod templates, and proxy provisioning parameters.

Kgateway HTTPListenerPolicy API

Apply policies to all HTTP and HTTPS listeners defined on a Gateway. Configure listener-level settings that affect all traffic passing through the specified listeners.

Kgateway TrafficPolicy API

Attach traffic management policies to routes in an HTTPRoute resource or all routes served by a Gateway. Supports CORS, external auth, external processing, rate limiting, timeou...

Scroll for all 7

Open Collections 8

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

kgateway Kubernetes Gateway AIBackend API

OPEN COLLECTION

kgateway Kubernetes Gateway AIBackend Backend API

OPEN COLLECTION

kgateway Kubernetes Gateway AIBackend DirectResponse API

OPEN COLLECTION

kgateway Kubernetes Gateway AIBackend GatewayExtension API

OPEN COLLECTION

kgateway Kubernetes Gateway AIBackend GatewayParameters API

OPEN COLLECTION

kgateway Kubernetes Gateway AIBackend HTTPListenerPolicy API

OPEN COLLECTION

kgateway Kubernetes Gateway API

OPEN COLLECTION

kgateway Kubernetes Gateway AIBackend TrafficPolicy API

OPEN COLLECTION

Scroll for all 8

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Kgateway Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Kgateway Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Kgateway Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Kgateway Context

0 classes · 7 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Kgateway — jsonschema rules

6 rules · 4 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 7

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

kgateway AIBackend

4 properties

JSON SCHEMA

kgateway Backend

4 properties

JSON SCHEMA

kgateway DirectResponse

4 properties

JSON SCHEMA

kgateway GatewayExtension

4 properties

JSON SCHEMA

kgateway GatewayParameters

4 properties

JSON SCHEMA

kgateway HTTPListenerPolicy

4 properties

JSON SCHEMA

kgateway TrafficPolicy

4 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Scroll for all 7

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Kgateway Authentication

http · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Kgateway Domain Security

TLSv1.3

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Kgateway Agentic Access

35 operations · 21 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHub

GitHub

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Learn 1

Tutorials, courses, talks, and written guidance

Videos

Videos

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 2

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

Company 3

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Source (apis.yml)

aid: kgateway
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/kgateway/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
apis:
- aid: kgateway:kgateway-aibackend-api
  name: Kgateway AIBackend API
  description: Configure AI backend providers with support for LLM providers such as OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, and Gemini. Specify
    provider configuration and priority groups for AI routing.
  humanURL: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  baseURL: https://kubernetes.default.svc/apis/gateway.kgateway.dev/v1alpha1
  tags:
  - AIBackend
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/kgateway-aibackend-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/traffic-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/backend.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/direct-response.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-extension.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-parameters.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/http-listener-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/ai-backend.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/kgateway-context.jsonld
- aid: kgateway:kgateway-backend-api
  name: Kgateway Backend API
  description: Define routable backends such as AI providers (OpenAI, Azure, Gemini), AWS Lambda functions, or static servers
    for use by Gateways. Reference Backend resources in HTTPRoute to route traffic to external services.
  humanURL: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  baseURL: https://kubernetes.default.svc/apis/gateway.kgateway.dev/v1alpha1
  tags:
  - Backend
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/kgateway-backend-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/traffic-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/backend.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/direct-response.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-extension.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-parameters.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/http-listener-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/ai-backend.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/kgateway-context.jsonld
- aid: kgateway:kgateway-directresponse-api
  name: Kgateway DirectResponse API
  description: Configure Gateways to directly respond to incoming requests with a custom HTTP response code and body without
    forwarding to a backend service.
  humanURL: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  baseURL: https://kubernetes.default.svc/apis/gateway.kgateway.dev/v1alpha1
  tags:
  - DirectResponse
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/kgateway-directresponse-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/traffic-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/backend.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/direct-response.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-extension.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-parameters.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/http-listener-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/ai-backend.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/kgateway-context.jsonld
- aid: kgateway:kgateway-gatewayextension-api
  name: Kgateway GatewayExtension API
  description: Integrate external services with a Gateway such as external auth, rate limiting, and external processing. Serves
    as a configuration bridge between kgateway and external services that extend Gateway functionality.
  humanURL: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  baseURL: https://kubernetes.default.svc/apis/gateway.kgateway.dev/v1alpha1
  tags:
  - GatewayExtension
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/kgateway-gatewayextension-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/traffic-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/backend.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/direct-response.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-extension.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-parameters.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/http-listener-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/ai-backend.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/kgateway-context.jsonld
- aid: kgateway:kgateway-gatewayparameters-api
  name: Kgateway GatewayParameters API
  description: Customize gateway infrastructure deployment settings including replicas, container configuration, pod templates,
    and proxy provisioning parameters.
  humanURL: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  baseURL: https://kubernetes.default.svc/apis/gateway.kgateway.dev/v1alpha1
  tags:
  - GatewayParameters
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/kgateway-gatewayparameters-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/traffic-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/backend.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/direct-response.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-extension.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-parameters.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/http-listener-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/ai-backend.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/kgateway-context.jsonld
- aid: kgateway:kgateway-httplistenerpolicy-api
  name: Kgateway HTTPListenerPolicy API
  description: Apply policies to all HTTP and HTTPS listeners defined on a Gateway. Configure listener-level settings that
    affect all traffic passing through the specified listeners.
  humanURL: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  baseURL: https://kubernetes.default.svc/apis/gateway.kgateway.dev/v1alpha1
  tags:
  - HTTPListenerPolicy
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/kgateway-httplistenerpolicy-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/traffic-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/backend.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/direct-response.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-extension.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-parameters.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/http-listener-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/ai-backend.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/kgateway-context.jsonld
- aid: kgateway:kgateway-trafficpolicy-api
  name: Kgateway TrafficPolicy API
  description: Attach traffic management policies to routes in an HTTPRoute resource or all routes served by a Gateway. Supports
    CORS, external auth, external processing, rate limiting, timeouts, retries, transformations, and header modifiers.
  humanURL: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  baseURL: https://kubernetes.default.svc/apis/gateway.kgateway.dev/v1alpha1
  tags:
  - Traffic Policy
  tags_raw:
  - TrafficPolicy
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/kgateway-trafficpolicy-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/reference/api/
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/traffic-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/backend.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/direct-response.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-extension.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/gateway-parameters.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/http-listener-policy.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/ai-backend.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/kgateway-context.jsonld
name: Kgateway
tags:
- Gateways
- API Gateway
type: Index
deliveryModel:
  model: self-hosted
  license: Apache-2.0
  license_evidence:
    repo: kgateway-dev/kgateway
    spdx: Apache-2.0
    stars: 5693
  open_source: true
  commercial: false
  callable_host: false
  label: Self-hosted open source · you run it yourself
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - openapi
  - repository-license
  generated: '2026-09-25'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  - security
  generated: '2026-09-03'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/kgateway.png
access: 3rd-Party
created: '2026-01-02'
modified: '2026-05-19'
position: Consuming
description: kgateway is the most widely deployed gateway in Kubernetes for microservices and AI agents. It is a feature-rich,
  fast, and flexible Kubernetes-native ingress controller and next-generation API gateway built on top of Envoy proxy and
  the Kubernetes Gateway API.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
specificationVersion: '0.23'
common:
- type: Plans
  url: plans/kgateway-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/kgateway-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/kgateway-finops.yml
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/kgateway-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/kgateway-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/kgateway-authentication.yml
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kgateway
- name: kgateway
  description: 'null'
  url: https://kgateway.dev/
  type: Website
- name: Videos – kgateway
  description: 'null'
  url: https://kgateway.dev/resources/videos/
  type: Videos
- name: Blog – kgateway
  description: 'null'
  url: https://kgateway.dev/blog/
  type: Blog
- name: Kgateway 2.1.x – kgateway
  description: 'null'
  url: https://kgateway.dev/docs/envoy/latest/
  type: Documentation
- name: GitHub Repository
  description: 'null'
  url: https://github.com/kgateway-dev/kgateway
  type: GitHub

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