Documentation
Gateway setup
Listeners
HTTP

HTTP

Create an HTTP listener on your API Gateway. Then, your API Gateway listens for HTTP traffic on the specified port and hostname that you configure. This Gateway can be used as the main ingress for the apps in your cluster. You can also create multiple Gateways to listen for traffic on different ports and hostnames.

Next, you set up an HTTPRoute resource to route requests through the Gateway to backing services in your cluster. HTTPRoutes can refer to any gateway independent of the namespace they are in.

Before you begin

  1. Follow the Get started guide to install kgateway.

  2. Deploy a sample httpbin app.

  3. Decide whether to set up a listener inline on the Gateway resource or as a separate ListenerSet resource. For more information, see the Listener overview.

    ListenerSets: This feature is available in kgateway version 2.1.x or later. Also, you must install the experimental channel of the Kubernetes Gateway API at version 1.3 or later.

Set up an HTTP listener

Set up an HTTP listener on your Gateway.

If you plan to set up your listener as part of a ListenerSet, keep the following considerations in mind. For more information, see ListenerSets (experimental).

  • This feature is available in kgateway version 2.1.x or later.
  • You must install the experimental channel of the Kubernetes Gateway API at version 1.3 or later.

  1. Create a Gateway resource with an HTTP listener.

    kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: my-http-gateway
  namespace: kgateway-system
  labels:
    example: httpbin-mydomain
spec:
  gatewayClassName: kgateway
  listeners:
  - protocol: HTTP
    port: 8080
    hostname: mydomain.com
    name: http
    allowedRoutes:
      namespaces:
        from: All
EOF

    Review the following table to understand this configuration.

    Setting Description
    spec.gatewayClassName The name of the Kubernetes GatewayClass that you want to use to configure the Gateway. When you set up kgateway, a default GatewayClass is set up for you.
    spec.listeners Configure the listeners for this Gateway. In this example, you configure an HTTP Gateway that listens for incoming traffic for the mydomain.com domain on port 8080. The Gateway can serve HTTP routes from any namespace.

    1. Create a Gateway that enables the attachment of ListenerSets.

      kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: my-http-gateway
  namespace: kgateway-system
  labels:
    example: httpbin-mydomain
spec:
  gatewayClassName: kgateway
  allowedListeners:
    namespaces:
      from: All        
  listeners:
  - protocol: HTTP
    port: 80
    name: http
    allowedRoutes:
      namespaces:
        from: All
EOF

      Review the following table to understand this configuration.

      Setting Description
      spec.gatewayClassName The name of the Kubernetes GatewayClass that you want to use to configure the Gateway. When you set up kgateway, a default GatewayClass is set up for you.
      spec.allowedListeners Enable the attachment of ListenerSets to this Gateway. The example allows listeners from any namespace, which is helpful in multitenant environments. You can also limit the allowed listeners. To limit to listeners in the same namespace as the Gateway, set this value to Same. To limit to listeners with a particular label, set this value to Selector.
      spec.listeners Optionally, you can configure a listener that is specific to the Gateway. Note that due to a Gateway API limitation, you must configure at least one listener on the Gateway resource, even if the listener is not used and is a generic, “dummy” listener. This generic listener cannot conflict with the listener that you configure in the ListenerSet, such as using the same port or name. In this example, the generic listener is configured on port 80, which differs from port 8080 in the ListenerSet that you create later.

    2. Create a ListenerSet that configures an HTTP listener for the Gateway.

      kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.x-k8s.io/v1alpha1
kind: XListenerSet
metadata:
  name: my-http-listenerset
  namespace: httpbin
  labels:
    example: httpbin-mydomain
spec:
  parentRef:
    name: my-http-gateway
    namespace: kgateway-system
    kind: Gateway
    group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
  listeners:
  - protocol: HTTP
    port: 8080
    hostname: mydomain.com
    name: http-listener-set
    allowedRoutes:
      namespaces:
        from: All
EOF

      Review the following table to understand this configuration.

      Setting Description
      spec.parentRef The name of the Gateway to attach the ListenerSet to.
      spec.listeners Configure the listeners for this ListenerSet. In this example, you configure an HTTP gateway that listens for incoming traffic for the mydomain.com domain on port 8080. The gateway can serve HTTP routes from any namespace.

  2. Check the status of the Gateway to make sure that your configuration is accepted. Note that in the output, a NoConflicts status of False indicates that the Gateway is accepted and does not conflict with other Gateway configuration.

    kubectl get gateway my-http-gateway -n kgateway-system -o yaml

  3. Create an HTTPRoute resource for the httpbin app that is served by the Gateway that you created.

    kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: httpbin-mydomain
  namespace: httpbin
  labels:
    example: httpbin-mydomain
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: my-http-gateway
      namespace: kgateway-system
  rules:
    - backendRefs:
        - name: httpbin
          port: 8000
EOF
    kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: httpbin-mydomain
  namespace: httpbin
  labels:
    example: httpbin-mydomain
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: my-http-listenerset
      namespace: httpbin
      kind: XListenerSet
      group: gateway.networking.x-k8s.io
  rules:
    - backendRefs:
        - name: httpbin
          port: 8000
EOF

  4. Verify that the HTTPRoute is applied successfully.

    kubectl get httproute/httpbin-mydomain -n httpbin -o yaml

    Example output: Notice in the status section that the parentRef is either the Gateway or the ListenerSet, depending on how you attached the HTTPRoute.

    ...
status:
  parents:
  - conditions:
    - lastTransitionTime: "2025-04-29T20:48:51Z"
      message: ""
      observedGeneration: 3
      reason: Accepted
      status: "True"
      type: Accepted
    - lastTransitionTime: "2025-04-29T20:48:51Z"
      message: ""
      observedGeneration: 3
      reason: ResolvedRefs
      status: "True"
      type: ResolvedRefs
    controllerName: kgateway.dev/kgateway
  parentRef:
    group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
    kind: Gateway
    name: my-http-gateway
    namespace: kgateway-system

  5. Verify that the listener now has a route attached.

    kubectl get gateway -n kgateway-system my-http-gateway -o yaml

    Example output:

    ...
listeners:
- attachedRoutes: 1
    kubectl get xlistenerset -n httpbin my-http-listenerset -o yaml

    Example output:

    ...
listeners:
- attachedRoutes: 1

    Note that because the HTTPRoute is attached to the ListenerSet, the Gateway does not show the route in its status.

    kubectl get gateway -n kgateway-system my-http-gateway -o yaml

    Example output:

    ...
listeners:
- attachedRoutes: 0

    If you create another HTTPRoute that attaches to the Gateway and uses the same listener as the ListenerSet, then the route is reported in the status of both the Gateway (attachedRoutes: 1) and the ListenerSet (attachedRoutes: 2).

  6. Get the external address of the gateway and save it in an environment variable. 

    export INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS=$(kubectl get svc -n kgateway-system my-http-gateway -o jsonpath="{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0]['hostname','ip']}")
echo $INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS   
    kubectl port-forward deployment/my-http-gateway -n kgateway-system 8080:8080

  7. Send a request to the httpbin app and verify that you get back a 200 HTTP response code. 

    curl -vi http://$INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS:8080/status/200 -H "host: mydomain.com:8080" 
    curl -vi localhost:8080/status/200 -H "host: mydomain.com"

    Example output:

    * Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< access-control-allow-credentials: true
access-control-allow-credentials: true
< access-control-allow-origin: *
access-control-allow-origin: *
< date: Fri, 03 Nov 2023 20:02:48 GMT
date: Fri, 03 Nov 2023 20:02:48 GMT
< content-length: 0
content-length: 0
< x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 1
x-envoy-upstream-service-time: 1
< server: envoy
server: envoy

Cleanup

You can remove the resources that you created in this guide. 
kubectl delete -A gateways,httproutes -l example=httpbin-mydomain
kubectl delete -A gateways,httproutes,xlistenersets -l example=httpbin-mydomain
Listener overviewHTTPS