# bfenetworks/bfe

A modern layer 7 load balancer from baidu

Repository: https://github.com/bfenetworks/bfe
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/bfe
Homepage: https://www.bfe-networks.net
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: bfe, reverse-proxy, load-balancer, golang, cncf
Last push: 2026-08-26T08:46:20+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 86, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2591, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 12, "gap_med": 73.0, "n_releases_24m": 7}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 6261, forks 947 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:41.104149+00:00)

## What it is
BFE (Beyond Front End) is a modern layer 7 load balancer and reverse proxy written in Go, originally developed at Baidu and now a CNCF sandbox project. It provides content-based routing, load balancing, and traffic management, with a control plane (API server, config agent, dashboard) and a Kubernetes Ingress controller.

## Use cases
- layer 7 load balancing for http services
- content-based routing of traffic to backend servers
- reverse proxy for microservices
- kubernetes ingress controller
- traffic management and config-driven forwarding rules
- self-hosted alternative to cloud load balancers

## When to choose
- you need a programmable layer 7 load balancer with content-based routing
- you want a kubernetes ingress controller backed by a mature proxy engine
- you need config-driven traffic management with a control plane and dashboard
- you prefer a go-based, CNCF-hosted proxy for large-scale traffic forwarding

## When to avoid
- you only need simple TCP/UDP layer 4 load balancing
- you want a minimal single-binary proxy without a separate control plane
- your team is already invested in nginx, envoy, or haproxy ecosystems
- you need a lightweight edge proxy for very small deployments

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: active
- function: load-testing, proxy, api-gateway, http-server, routing, middleware
- domain: networking, infrastructure-as-code, cloud-computing, microservices
- platform: go, self-hosted, cloud
- tags: layer7-load-balancer, reverse-proxy, content-based-routing, traffic-management, cncf, ingress-controller, devops, linux, docker, kubernetes

## Member repositories
- bfenetworks/bfe (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:41.104149+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 2026-08-29T17:46:30.835357+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/bfenetworks/bfe (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:41.104149+00:00, sha 42addc2d6f45)
  - homepage: https://www.bfe-networks.net (fetched 2026-08-29T08:43:08.068165+00:00, sha c69cab20a137)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.