Infrastructure · Software component

API Gateway Proxy

Software componentInfrastructureInfrastructureVariation point (abstract)arc:APIGatewayProxy

An abstract reverse proxy at the system entry point that applies cross-cutting traffic policies and forwards requests to backend agent services.

Responsibility. Centralises entry-point traffic handling for all backend agent services.

Also known as: API gateway, Reverse proxy, API layer gateway

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Variants

Variant	When to choose
High-Performance Reverse Proxy	Choose when maximum performance and operational simplicity outweigh API-management features, authentication/rate limiting live elsewhere, and routing plus load balancing suffice.
Policy Plugin Gateway	Choose when centralised policy management, varied authentication schemes (OAuth2, JWT, API keys), traffic transformation or complex routing justify added latency and configuration complexity.

SHOULD centralise authentication, rate limiting, logging and routing at the gateway rather than re-implementing them in each agent.
SHOULD centralize authentication, authorization, rate limiting, request validation and per-user cost tracking in a gateway rather than in each service.

Patterns: API gatewayCentralised cross-cutting concerns
Technologies: NGINXKong
Quality attributes: Security (ISO/IEC 25010 | NIST AI RMF: secure and resilient)Maintainability (ISO/IEC 25010)Reliability (ISO/IEC 25010 | NIST AI RMF: valid and reliable)
Risks mitigated: Duplicated, inconsistent per-agent authentication and throttling

Ch4.1: T. Nguyen, "Introduction to AI Agent Deployment and Scaling," in Mastering Agentic AI Systems: Guide for the NVIDIA NCP-AAI Exam, 1st ed. 2026, ch. 4.1. ISBN: 9798244538229.
Ch6.5: T. Nguyen, "Production RAG Systems," in Mastering Agentic AI Systems: Guide for the NVIDIA NCP-AAI Exam, 1st ed. 2026, ch. 6.5. ISBN: 9798244538229.