# apache/apisix

The Cloud-Native API Gateway and AI Gateway

Repository: https://github.com/apache/apisix
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/apisix
Homepage: https://apisix.apache.org/blog/
Language: Lua
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: cloud-native, nginx, api-management, luajit, api-gateway, microservices, apisix, api, loadbalancing, reverse-proxy, serverless, iot, devops, kubernetes, kubernetes-ingress, ai-gateway, openapi, openapi3, openapi31
Last push: 2026-08-26T09:38:39+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 86, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2703, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 13, "gap_med": 78.0, "n_releases_24m": 9}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 17038, forks 2924 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:17.610013+00:00)

## What it is
Apache APISIX is a dynamic, high-performance cloud-native API gateway and AI gateway built on NGINX and etcd, offering load balancing, dynamic routing, authentication, rate limiting, canary release, circuit breaking, and observability. It ships 100+ hot-reloadable plugins, extensible runners for Java, Go, and Python, and can serve as a Kubernetes ingress controller or a gateway for LLM and AI workloads.

## Use cases
- manage and route API traffic for microservices
- set up an API gateway with rate limiting and authentication
- run a Kubernetes ingress controller with rich plugins
- load balance and proxy requests to upstream services
- route LLM API traffic with response caching and semantic model routing
- do canary releases and circuit breaking for service traffic
- add observability to north-south and east-west traffic

## When to choose
- You need dynamic routing and hot-reloaded plugin configuration backed by etcd in a cloud-native environment
- You are deploying on Kubernetes and want ingress or Gateway API control with declarative CRDs
- You need to gateway, cache, and route AI/LLM provider traffic with semantic model routing
- You want a large plugin ecosystem plus custom plugins in Lua, Java, Go, or Python

## When to avoid
- You only need a simple static reverse proxy and do not want to operate etcd or a distributed config store
- You run a small single-service app where a full gateway adds unnecessary operational overhead
- You require a fully managed cloud gateway service rather than self-hosted infrastructure
- Your team cannot take on OpenResty/LuaJIT-based operations or Apache project governance

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: stable
- function: api-gateway, proxy, routing, rate-limiting, auth, service-discovery, plugin-system, monitoring
- domain: microservices, apis, cloud-computing, large-language-models, self-hosted
- platform: cloud, self-hosted, lua
- tags: ai-gateway, llm-gateway, reverse-proxy, load-balancing, traffic-management, circuit-breaking, canary-release, ingress-controller, gateway-api, openresty, nginx, etcd, openapi, observability, hot-reload, east-west-traffic, north-south-traffic, containers, devops, linux, docker, kubernetes, web-server

## Member repositories
- apache/apisix (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:17.610013+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:03:39.847972+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/apache/apisix (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:17.610013+00:00, sha 3ee2689a8042)
  - homepage: https://apisix.apache.org/blog/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:01:51.285377+00:00, sha bae14de07872)
  - site_page: https://apisix.apache.org/docs/apisix/getting-started/README (fetched 2026-08-29T08:01:51.288116+00:00, sha 7645c4d295a1)
  - site_page: https://apisix.apache.org/docs/ingress-controller/overview (fetched 2026-08-29T08:01:51.290380+00:00, sha 8520229ac418)
  - site_page: https://apisix.apache.org/docs/helm-chart/apisix (fetched 2026-08-29T08:01:51.292170+00:00, sha 7119cbf7ec3f)
  - site_page: https://apisix.apache.org/docs/docker/build (fetched 2026-08-29T08:01:51.293743+00:00, sha f6227f0ecc41)
  - site_page: https://apisix.apache.org/docs/java-plugin-runner/development (fetched 2026-08-29T08:01:51.295313+00:00, sha ca57f992f2ae)
  - site_page: https://apisix.apache.org/docs/go-plugin-runner/getting-started (fetched 2026-08-29T08:01:51.297092+00:00, sha f73de8159535)
  - site_page: https://apisix.apache.org/docs/python-plugin-runner/getting-started (fetched 2026-08-29T08:01:51.298807+00:00, sha 0c5247c917c0)
  - site_page: https://apisix.apache.org/docs/general/join (fetched 2026-08-29T08:01:51.300476+00:00, sha cdef87451d28)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.