A production-style API Gateway built to handle authentication, request routing, and centralized control for backend services in a cloud-native environment.
This project focuses on treating APIs as infrastructure, not just endpoints — emphasizing security, scalability, and maintainability.
In distributed systems, multiple services often need to handle:
- Authentication & authorization
- Request routing
- Validation & error handling
- Observability (logging, tracing)
Without a gateway, these concerns get duplicated across services, leading to:
- ❌ Inconsistent security
- ❌ Code duplication
- ❌ Increased system complexity
An API Gateway provides a single entry point that centralizes these responsibilities.
Client ↓ API Gateway (Spring Boot) ↓ Backend Services (extensible)
- Authenticate incoming requests (JWT)
- Validate and process requests
- Route requests to appropriate services
- Handle errors consistently
- JWT-based authentication and authorization
- Secure request handling
- Role-based access control (extensible)
- Centralized request entry point
- Request routing and handling
- Decouples clients from backend services
- Dockerized application
- Environment-based configuration
- Designed for scalability and deployment flexibility
- Structured error handling
- Input validation
- Clean layered architecture (Controller → Service → Repository)
- Backend: Spring Boot (Java)
- Security: Spring Security, JWT
- Containerization: Docker
- Build Tool: Maven / Gradle
git clone https://github.com/NasitSony/Cloud-Native-API-Gateway.git
cd Cloud-Native-API-Gateway
2️⃣ Configure environment
Set required environment variables (e.g., JWT secret)
3️⃣ Run the application
./mvnw spring-boot:run
4️⃣ Run with Docker (optional)
docker build -t api-gateway .
docker run -p 8080:8080 api-gateway
🔍 Example Flow
1) Client sends request with JWT token
2) Gateway validates token
3) Request is processed and routed
4) Response returned to client
🎯 Design Focus
- Treating API layers as infrastructure components
- Centralizing cross-cutting concerns (security, routing)
- Designing backend systems for scalability and clarity
- Building clean, maintainable service architecture
💡 Key Learnings
- API gateways simplify distributed systems by centralizing shared concerns
- Security should be enforced at a single entry point
- Backend systems must be designed with scalability in mind from the start
- Clean architecture improves long-term maintainability
📌 Positioning
This project represents the API layer of a distributed system, complementing:
- AI infrastructure systems (e.g., SmartSearch)
- Storage engines (LSM-based KV store)
- Future consensus systems (Raft / BFT)
📬 Contact
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nasitsony