API Gateway
Gateway Pattern
Client ──▶ API Gateway ──┬──▶ User Service
├──▶ Order Service
├──▶ Product Service
└──▶ Payment Service
AWS API Gateway
// CDK definition
const api = new apigateway.RestApi(this, 'MyApi', {
restApiName: 'My Service',
deployOptions: { stageName: 'prod', throttlingRateLimit: 1000, throttlingBurstLimit: 500 },
});
const orders = api.root.addResource('orders');
orders.addMethod('GET', new apigateway.LambdaIntegration(listOrdersFn));
orders.addMethod('POST', new apigateway.LambdaIntegration(createOrderFn), {
authorizer: cognitoAuthorizer,
authorizationType: apigateway.AuthorizationType.COGNITO,
});
// Usage plan with API key
const plan = api.addUsagePlan('BasicPlan', {
throttle: { rateLimit: 100, burstLimit: 50 },
quota: { limit: 10000, period: apigateway.Period.MONTH },
});
Kong (Declarative Config)
# kong.yml
_format_version: "3.0"
services:
- name: user-service
url: http://user-svc:3000
routes:
- name: users-route
paths: ["/api/users"]
strip_path: true
plugins:
- name: rate-limiting
config: { minute: 100, policy: redis, redis_host: redis }
- name: jwt
- name: cors
config:
origins: ["https://myapp.com"]
methods: ["GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE"]
- name: order-service
url: http://order-svc:3000
routes:
- name: orders-route
paths: ["/api/orders"]
plugins:
- name: rate-limiting
config: { minute: 50 }
NGINX as Gateway
upstream user_service { server user-svc:3000; }
upstream order_service { server order-svc:3000; }
server {
listen 443 ssl;
location /api/users/ {
proxy_pass http://user_service/;
proxy_set_header X-Request-ID $request_id;
limit_req zone=api burst=20 nodelay;
}
location /api/orders/ {
proxy_pass http://order_service/;
proxy_set_header X-Request-ID $request_id;
}
}
BFF (Backend for Frontend)
// BFF aggregates multiple services for the frontend
app.get('/api/bff/dashboard', auth, async (req, res) => {
const [user, orders, notifications] = await Promise.all([
userService.getProfile(req.user.id),
orderService.getRecent(req.user.id, 5),
notificationService.getUnread(req.user.id),
]);
res.json({ user, recentOrders: orders, unreadCount: notifications.length });
});
Anti-Patterns
| Anti-Pattern | Fix |
|---|
| Business logic in gateway | Gateway only routes, auth, rate limits |
| No rate limiting | Configure per-route limits |
| Single point of failure | Deploy gateway with redundancy |
| No request ID propagation | Add X-Request-ID header for tracing |
| Gateway handles data transformation | Keep transformations in BFF or services |
Production Checklist
- Rate limiting configured per route
- Authentication offloaded to gateway
- Request ID propagation for tracing
- Health check endpoints for upstream services
- Circuit breaker on upstream failures
- TLS termination at gateway