# envoyproxy/envoy

Cloud-native high-performance edge/middle/service proxy

Repository: https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/envoy
Homepage: https://www.envoyproxy.io
Language: C++
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: cats, rocket-ships, cars, more-cats, cats-over-dogs, nanoservices, corgis, cncf
Last push: 2026-08-27T00:14:51+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 87, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3677, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 7, "gap_med": 0.0, "n_releases_24m": 107}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 28822, forks 5576 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:52.880755+00:00)

## What it is
Envoy is a CNCF-hosted, high-performance C++ edge, middle, and service proxy designed for cloud-native and AI-native applications. It provides L7 routing, load balancing, TLS termination, observability, and dynamic xDS configuration, and serves as the engine behind gateways and service meshes like Envoy Gateway and Istio.

## Use cases
- run a high-performance edge proxy for microservices
- terminate TLS and route traffic at the edge
- act as a Kubernetes ingress gateway
- add distributed tracing and L7 observability to service traffic
- load balance and proxy LLM/AI inference traffic
- enforce JWT auth, RBAC, and rate limits on requests
- dynamically reconfigure routing without restarts via xDS

## When to choose
- you need a battle-tested, CNCF-graduated data plane for microservices or service meshes
- you want deep L7 visibility with stats, access logs, and distributed tracing
- you need programmable, hot-reconfigurable routing and policy via xDS APIs
- you are building a gateway or mesh and want a proven proxy engine underneath
- you need first-class support for streaming AI/LLM traffic

## When to avoid
- you need a simple reverse proxy with minimal configuration (nginx or Caddy may suffice)
- your team cannot operate a complex, config-heavy proxy
- you only need basic L4 forwarding without advanced L7 features
- you want a lightweight sidecar with a very small resource footprint

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: stable
- function: proxy, api-gateway, load-testing, middleware, http-server, tracing, monitoring, auth, rate-limiting
- domain: microservices, cloud-computing, networking, security, monitoring, large-language-models
- platform: cloud, self-hosted, cpp, windows
- tags: edge-proxy, service-mesh, xds, cncf, ingress, tls-termination, wasm-filters, grpc, ai-gateway, l7-proxy, devops, containers, linux, macos, docker, kubernetes

## Member repositories
- envoyproxy/envoy (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:52.880755+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 2026-08-29T16:53:17.541208+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:52.880755+00:00, sha c2fa9adb17c1)
  - homepage: https://www.envoyproxy.io (fetched 2026-08-29T07:50:34.162367+00:00, sha bc460735704f)
  - site_page: https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T07:50:34.172055+00:00, sha 0b903ee1a858)
  - site_page: https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/latest/start/start (fetched 2026-08-29T07:50:34.173819+00:00, sha f3a4909231b1)
  - site_page: https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/v1.39.1/version_history/current (fetched 2026-08-29T07:50:34.175287+00:00, sha 7b0381e4440b)
  - site_page: https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/latest (fetched 2026-08-29T07:50:34.176878+00:00, sha ef123951403b)
  - site_page: https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/latest/start/install (fetched 2026-08-29T07:50:34.178689+00:00, sha 7d43ba619085)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.