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Last modified November 10, 2025

Installing Gateway API with Envoy Gateway

Prerequisites

Before setting up Gateway API, ensure you have:

  • A Giant Swarm workload cluster
  • kubectl configured to access your workload cluster
  • Access to the Giant Swarm platform API for app installation
  • Basic understanding of Kubernetes networking concepts

Installation

Gateway API support is provided through three apps that work together. You can install them individually or use the Gateway API Bundle for simplified deployment. Our recommendation is to use the Gateway API Bundle, which installs all required components:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: <CLUSTER_NAME>-gateway-api-bundle
  namespace: org-<ORGANIZATION>
data:
  values: |
    clusterID: <CLUSTER_NAME>
    organization: <ORGANIZATION>
    apps:
      gatewayApiConfig:
        userConfig:
          configMap:
            values: |
              gateways:
                default:
                  dnsName: ingress
      gatewayApiCrds:
        userConfig:
          configMap:
            values: |
              install:
                inferencepools: "standard"    
---
apiVersion: application.giantswarm.io/v1alpha1
kind: App
metadata:
  labels:
    app-operator.giantswarm.io/version: 0.0.0
  name: <CLUSTER_NAME>-gateway-api-bundle
  namespace: org-<ORGANIZATION>
spec:
  catalog: giantswarm
  kubeConfig:
    inCluster: true
  name: gateway-api-bundle
  namespace: org-<ORGANIZATION>
  userConfig:
    configMap:
      name: <CLUSTER_NAME>-gateway-api-bundle
      namespace: org-<ORGANIZATION>
  version: 1.1.0

In the configuration, you enable the gateway to be the default ingress method for your cluster. Also, the Gateway API Inference Extension CRDs are installed in the workload cluster.

Run kubectl apply -f command on your management cluster to install the bundle then wait until the child apps are deployed (CRDs, envoy gateway and gateway default config).

Configuration

Using the default gateway

When you install the Gateway API Bundle, it automatically creates a default Gateway Class called giantswarm-default that’s pointing to the envoy controller. You can verify it exists on your workload cluster:

kubectl get gatewayclass

Expected output:

NAME                 CONTROLLER                                      ACCEPTED
giantswarm-default   gateway.envoyproxy.io/gatewayclass-controller   True

Additionally, it also creates a default gateway ready to use in the cluster:

NAME                 CLASS                ADDRESS                            PROGRAMMED
giantswarm-default   giantswarm-default   axx8.eu-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com   True

This default Gateway is configured to handle traffic for your cluster’s base domain (*.CLUSTER_ID.k8s.gigantic.io) and is ready to use immediately with HTTPRoutes.

Note: In case you have already running the ingress-nginx controller in your cluster, talk to us to help you with the migration.

Custom gateway setup (optional)

If you need additional Gateways for specific requirements, you can create custom ones:

apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: custom-gateway
  namespace: envoy-gateway-system
spec:
  gatewayClassName: giantswarm-default
  listeners:
  - name: http
    protocol: HTTP
    port: 80
    hostname: "*.example.com"
  - name: https
    protocol: HTTPS
    port: 443
    hostname: "*.example.com"
    tls:
      mode: Terminate
      certificateRefs:
      - name: example-tls-cert
        kind: Secret

Custom gateway configuration

For production use, customize the Gateway API Config app with your specific requirements:

# gateway-api-config-values.yaml
gateways:
  production:
    hostnames:
      - "api.example.com"
      - "*.apps.example.com"
    tls:
      enabled: true
      certificateRef:
        name: production-tls
        namespace: giantswarm
  staging:
    hostnames:
      - "staging.example.com"
    tls:
      enabled: false

Apply the configuration:

kubectl gs template app \
  --catalog=giantswarm \
  --cluster-name=CLUSTER_NAME \
  --organization=ORGANIZATION \
  --name=gateway-api-config \
  --target-namespace=giantswarm \
  --user-configmap=gateway-api-config-values.yaml \
  --version=0.5.1 > gateway-api-config.yaml

kubectl apply -f gateway-api-config.yaml