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Multi-level delegation

Create a 3-level route delegation hierarchy with a parent, child, and grandchild HTTPRoute.

Create a 3-level route delegation hierarchy with a parent, child, and grandchild HTTPRoute.

Configuration overview

In this guide, you set up a 3-level route delegation hierarchy. The parent HTTPRoute delegates to a child, and the child delegates to a grandchild that forwards traffic to an httpbin sample app.

The following image illustrates the route delegation hierarchy:

parent HTTPRoute:

• Delegates traffic as follows:
  • /anything/team1 is delegated to the child HTTPRoute child-team1 in namespace team1.
  • /anything/team2 is delegated to the child HTTPRoute child-team2 in namespace team2.

child-team1 HTTPRoute:

• Matches incoming traffic for the /anything/team1/foo prefix path and routes that traffic to the httpbin app in the team1 namespace.

child-team2 HTTPRoute:

• Delegates traffic on the /anything/team2/grandchild/ prefix to a grandchild HTTPRoute in the team2 namespace.

grandchild HTTPRoute:

• Matches incoming traffic for the /anything/team2/grandchild/.* regex path and routes that traffic to the httpbin app in the team2 namespace.

Before you begin

1. Follow the Get started guide to install agentgateway.

2. Follow the Sample app guide to create the agentgateway-proxy Gateway with an HTTP listener.

3. Get the external address of the agentgateway proxy and save it in an environment variable.

   Cloud Provider LoadBalancerPort-forward for local testing

   export INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS=$(kubectl get svc -n agentgateway-system agentgateway-proxy -o jsonpath="{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0]['hostname','ip']}")
   echo $INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS

   kubectl port-forward deployment/agentgateway-proxy -n agentgateway-system 8080:80

4. Create the namespaces for team1 and team2.

   kubectl create namespace team1
   kubectl create namespace team2

5. Deploy the httpbin app into both namespaces. The httpbin app exposes endpoints such as /anything/..., /headers, and /delay/N that are useful for verifying routing and policy behavior.

   curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kgateway-dev/kgateway/main/examples/httpbin.yaml \
     | awk 'BEGIN{skip=0} /^kind: Namespace$/{skip=1} skip==0{print} /^---$/{skip=0}' \
     | sed 's/namespace: httpbin/namespace: team1/g' \
     | kubectl apply -f -
   
   curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kgateway-dev/kgateway/main/examples/httpbin.yaml \
     | awk 'BEGIN{skip=0} /^kind: Namespace$/{skip=1} skip==0{print} /^---$/{skip=0}' \
     | sed 's/namespace: httpbin/namespace: team2/g' \
     | kubectl apply -f -

6. Verify that the httpbin apps are up and running.

   kubectl get pods -n team1
   kubectl get pods -n team2

   Example output:

   NAME                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
   httpbin-6bc5b79755-xlvjf   3/3     Running   0          7s
   NAME                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
   httpbin-6bc5b79755-twxq9   3/3     Running   0          6s

Setup

1. Create the parent HTTPRoute that matches incoming traffic on the delegation.example domain. The HTTPRoute specifies two routes:

   • /anything/team1: The routing decision is delegated to a child HTTPRoute in the team1 namespace.
   • /anything/team2: The routing decision is delegated to a child HTTPRoute in the team2 namespace.

   kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
   apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
   kind: HTTPRoute
   metadata:
     name: parent
     namespace: agentgateway-system
   spec:
     hostnames:
     - delegation.example
     parentRefs:
     - name: agentgateway-proxy
     rules:
     - matches:
       - path:
           type: PathPrefix
           value: /anything/team1
       backendRefs:
       - group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
         kind: HTTPRoute
         name: child-team1
         namespace: team1
     - matches:
       - path:
           type: PathPrefix
           value: /anything/team2
       backendRefs:
       - group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
         kind: HTTPRoute
         name: child-team2
         namespace: team2
   EOF

2. Create the child-team1 HTTPRoute in the team1 namespace that matches traffic on the /anything/team1/foo prefix and routes traffic to the httpbin app.

   kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
   apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
   kind: HTTPRoute
   metadata:
     name: child-team1
     namespace: team1
   spec:
     rules:
     - matches:
       - path:
           type: PathPrefix
           value: /anything/team1/foo
       backendRefs:
       - name: httpbin
         port: 8000
   EOF

3. Create the child-team2 HTTPRoute in the team2 namespace that matches traffic on the /anything/team2/grandchild/ prefix and delegates traffic to a grandchild HTTPRoute in the team2 namespace. Because the child delegates to a grandchild, the rule must use a PathPrefix matcher.

   kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
   apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
   kind: HTTPRoute
   metadata:
     name: child-team2
     namespace: team2
   spec:
     rules:
     - matches:
       - path:
           type: PathPrefix
           value: /anything/team2/grandchild/
       backendRefs:
       - group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
         kind: HTTPRoute
         name: grandchild
         namespace: team2
   EOF

4. Create a grandchild HTTPRoute that matches traffic on the /anything/team2/grandchild/.* regex path and routes traffic to the httpbin app in the team2 namespace.

   kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
   apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
   kind: HTTPRoute
   metadata:
     name: grandchild
     namespace: team2
   spec:
     rules:
     - matches:
       - path:
           type: RegularExpression
           value: /anything/team2/grandchild/.*
       backendRefs:
       - name: httpbin
         port: 8000
   EOF

5. Send a request to the delegation.example domain along the /anything/team1/foo path. Verify that you get a 200 HTTP response.

   Cloud Provider LoadBalancerPort-forward for local testing

   curl -i http://$INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS:8080/anything/team1/foo -H "host: delegation.example"

   curl -i localhost:8080/anything/team1/foo -H "host: delegation.example"

   Example output:

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   access-control-allow-credentials: true
   access-control-allow-origin: *
   content-type: application/json; encoding=utf-8
   server: agentgateway

6. Send another request to the delegation.example domain along the /anything/team1/bar path. Verify that you get a 404 HTTP response, because this path is not specified in child-team1.

   Cloud Provider LoadBalancerPort-forward for local testing

   curl -i http://$INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS:8080/anything/team1/bar -H "host: delegation.example"

   curl -i localhost:8080/anything/team1/bar -H "host: delegation.example"

   Example output:

   HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
   content-type: text/plain
   server: agentgateway

7. Send another request to the delegation.example domain. This time, use the /anything/team2/grandchild/bar path that is matched by the grandchild HTTPRoute. Verify that you get a 200 HTTP response.

   Cloud Provider LoadBalancerPort-forward for local testing

   curl -i http://$INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS:8080/anything/team2/grandchild/bar -H "host: delegation.example"

   curl -i localhost:8080/anything/team2/grandchild/bar -H "host: delegation.example"

   Example output:

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   access-control-allow-credentials: true
   access-control-allow-origin: *
   content-type: application/json; encoding=utf-8
   server: agentgateway

8. Send another request along the /anything/team2/grandchild/foo path. Because the grandchild HTTPRoute uses a regular expression to match incoming traffic, any path that begins with /anything/team2/grandchild/ is routed to the httpbin app in the team2 namespace.

   Cloud Provider LoadBalancerPort-forward for local testing

   curl -i http://$INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS:8080/anything/team2/grandchild/foo -H "host: delegation.example"

   curl -i localhost:8080/anything/team2/grandchild/foo -H "host: delegation.example"

   Example output:

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   access-control-allow-credentials: true
   access-control-allow-origin: *
   content-type: application/json; encoding=utf-8
   server: agentgateway

Cleanup

kubectl delete httproute parent -n agentgateway-system
kubectl delete httproute child-team1 -n team1
kubectl delete httproute child-team2 -n team2
kubectl delete httproute grandchild -n team2
kubectl delete namespaces team1 team2