How api gateway works

Trace a request through a shared endpoint: authenticate, apply a quota, match a route, and wait for an upstream response.

When to use it

Expose users and orders services through one public API without teaching every client your service topology.

Explore the tradeoffs

A gateway makes routing decisions at the application boundary. A shared endpoint needs its own capacity and redundancy.

Policy order changes which requests consume resources. Central policies simplify enforcement but do not replace service-level authorization.

A gateway timeout does not undo downstream work. Short deadlines limit waiting but can reject work that would eventually succeed.

Model boundaries

Requests are sequential and share one quota key. Credentials are valid/missing flags; no real tokens, TLS, gateway replicas or network calls are involved.