Launching the First API Gateway with Built-in Agent Mode

For the last several months, we have been quietly building something I have wanted DigitalAPI to own for a long time.

Today, I am happy to share it.

We are launching the DigitalAPI API Gateway, with the first built-in Agent Mode for any API Gateway.

This is an important launch for us, because I think the way we work with gateways is overdue for a change.

Software development has moved forward very quickly but the interface to API infrastructure has not.

Developers Got Faster, the Gateway Did Not.

AI has changed what a small engineering team can accomplish.

Developers can generate code, build applications, create tests and iterate on ideas at a speed that would have looked unrealistic only a few years ago.

Then they reach the API Gateway.

And suddenly, the old workflow comes back.

• Configure authentication.
• Set rate limits.
• Create routes.
• Add transformations.
• Understand revisions.
• Configure environments.
• Deploy.
• Test.

And before doing any of that, learn how that particular gateway expects you to do it.

Someone who has spent years working with one gateway still needs to understand the next gateway if they migrate.

Migrate again, and there is another configuration model to learn.

The fundamentals have not changed.

But every platform has built its own way of implementing those concepts.

Over time, we created an entire layer of specialist knowledge around the gateway.

I have always found that strange.

If an experienced architect understands APIs, why should they need weeks of platform-specific learning before they can get useful work done?

That question became the starting point for what we built.

What if You Could Just Tell the Gateway What You Wanted?

At its core, our Gateway does everything you would expect from a modern API Gateway.

It handles:

• API security
• Traffic management and metering
• Message transformation
• Protocol transformation
• Routing

It is built on a modern architecture, designed to be lightweight, extensible and suitable for the way teams build applications today.

But the part I am most excited about is Agent Mode.

Instead of learning where every setting lives, you can describe the outcome you want.

• Bring an API specification.
• Or start with an idea.
• Ask Agent Mode to secure the API.
• Add a traffic policy.
• Configure routing.
• Transform a request.
• Create the right gateway configuration.
• Deploy it.

You are still making the architectural decisions.

The difference is that you are working with the gateway in the language of APIs, rather than learning another proprietary workflow.

You bring the API knowledge. Agent Mode handles the gateway.

That is the experience we wanted from day one.

This Becomes Even More Important Because of Agents

There is another reason we chose to build the Gateway now.

APIs are getting a new kind of consumer.

Agents.

Until now, API traffic has largely come from web applications, mobile applications, internal systems, developers and partners.

Agents change that mix.

They will discover tools, call APIs, execute workflows and interact with enterprise systems programmatically.

That means organisations are going to need more APIs.

They will need to expose them faster.

They will need stronger and more consistent controls around them.

And they will need infrastructure that can support both traditional application traffic and agent-driven traffic.

I do not think the answer is to add even more disconnected tools.

The API layer needs to become simpler at exactly the moment it is becoming more important.

We Are Shipping This Now

I have spent a large part of my career around API platforms.

I know how powerful they can be.

I also know how much complexity the industry has accepted as normal simply because that is how these systems have always worked.

I do not think we need to accept that anymore.

The best infrastructure disappears into the work you are trying to do.

You should understand the concept and be able to start.

You should not need a manual before you can create your first API.

And you should not need to become an expert in another gateway before you can be productive.

That is the standard we are setting for ourselves with DigitalAPI Gateway.

Agent Mode is available to try today.

• Bring an API specification, or just bring an idea.
• Build your first API.
• Secure it.
• Configure it.
• Deploy it.

And tell us what you think.

We are just getting started.