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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How can I get involved with Gateway API?

The community page keeps track of how to get involved with the project.

Will Gateway API replace the Ingress API?

No. The Ingress API is GA since Kubernetes 1.19. There are no plans to deprecate this API and we expect most Ingress controllers to support it indefinitely.

What are the differences between Ingress and Gateway API?

Ingress primarily targets exposing HTTP applications with a simple, declarative syntax. Gateway API exposes a more general API for proxying that can be used for more protocols than just HTTP, and models more infrastructure components to provide better deployment and management options for cluster operators.

For more information, see the Migrating from Ingress guide.

Will there be a default controller implementation?

No. There are already many great implementations to choose from. The scope of this project is to define the API, conformance tests, and overall documentation.

How can I expose custom capabilities through Gateway API?

There are a few mechanisms available for extending the API with implementation-specific capabilities:

  • The Policy Attachment model allows you to decorate Gateway API objects with implementation-specific CRDs. A policy or configuration object could match the Gateway API object either by name or by using an explicit object reference.

  • Use implementation-specific values for string fields in Gateway API resources.

  • As a last resort, use implementation-specific annotations on Gateway API objects.

  • Use API-defined extension points. Some Gateway API objects have explicit extension points for implementations to use.

Where can I find Gateway API releases?

Gateway API releases are tags of the GitHub repository. The GitHub releases page shows all the releases.

How should I think about alpha API versions?

Similar to upstream Kubernetes, alpha API versions indicate that resources are still experimental in nature and may either be removed or changed in breaking ways in future releases of Gateway API.

See the Versioning documentation for more info.

Which Kubernetes versions are supported?

See our policy on supported versions.

Is SSL Passthrough supported?

SSL Passthrough (wherein a Gateway routes traffic with the Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption intact to a backend service instead of terminating it) is supported by TLSRoutes. See the TLS Guide for more details about passthrough and other TLS configurations.

What's the difference between Gateway API and an API Gateway?

An API gateway is a tool that aggregates unique application APIs, making them all available in one place. It allows organizations to move key functions, such as authentication and authorization or limiting the number of requests between applications, to a centrally managed location. An API gateway functions as a common interface to (often external) API consumers.

Gateway API is an interface, defined as a set of Kubernetes resources, that models service networking in Kubernetes. One of the main resources is a Gateway, which declares the Gateway type (or class) to instantiate and its configuration. As a Gateway provider, you can implement Gateway API to model Kubernetes service networking in an expressive, extensible, and role-oriented way.

Some API gateways can be programmed using the Gateway API.

Is Gateway API a standard for API Management?

No. API Management is a much broader concept than what Gateway API aims to be, or what an API Gateway is intended to provide. An API Gateway can be an essential part of an API Management solution. Gateway API can be seen as a way to standardize provisioning of API Gateways.