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KGateway

infrastructure
Trial

KGateway is a Kubernetes-native API gateway that we're evaluating for managing AI agent API traffic, implementing MCP (Model Context Protocol) routing, and providing unified access to our agentic services.

Why we're trialing KGateway:

  • Kubernetes Native: Deep integration with Kubernetes networking and service discovery
  • MCP Gateway Support: Potential for routing Model Context Protocol requests to appropriate agents
  • Dynamic Configuration: API routes configured via Kubernetes CRDs
  • Traffic Management: Advanced routing, load balancing, and circuit breaking
  • Developer Experience: GitOps-friendly configuration management

Potential benefits for AI agent infrastructure:

  • Agent API Unification: Single entry point for multiple AI agent services
  • Request Routing: Intelligent routing based on agent capabilities and availability
  • Rate Limiting: Protect agent services from excessive API requests
  • Authentication: Centralized auth for agent API access
  • Observability: Unified metrics and tracing for agent API calls

MCP Gateway capabilities:

  • Protocol Translation: Convert between different agent communication protocols
  • Context Routing: Route requests to agents based on context and capabilities
  • Load Balancing: Distribute MCP requests across multiple agent instances
  • Failover: Automatic failover between agent services
  • Request Transformation: Modify requests/responses for agent compatibility

Evaluation criteria:

  • Performance: Latency impact on agent API calls and MCP communication
  • Stability: Production readiness and reliability for critical agent workflows
  • Integration: How well it works with our existing Istio service mesh
  • Configuration: Ease of managing complex agent routing rules
  • Observability: Quality of metrics, logging, and tracing integration

Comparison with alternatives:

  • vs. Istio Gateway: Simpler configuration but potentially less feature-rich
  • vs. NGINX Ingress: More Kubernetes-native but newer technology
  • vs. Ambassador: Different approach to configuration and extensibility

Next steps:

  • Pilot deployment for non-critical agent APIs
  • Performance benchmarking against current Istio gateway setup
  • Evaluate MCP protocol support and routing capabilities
  • Assess operational complexity and troubleshooting experience