How to catalog Kong APIs with DigitalAPI's developer portal?

Kong gives you a strong runtime and a capable Dev Portal, but most enterprises don’t live in a Kong-only world. APIs sit across different platforms, documentation is scattered, specs drift from what’s actually deployed, and developers can’t see the full picture.

This blog shows you how to catalog your Kong APIs in one place using DigitalAPI’s developer portal, and, if you want, bring in APIs from other gateways and sources too. Think of it as the fastest way to move from “we think we know our APIs” to a single, always-in-sync catalog.

Why cataloging Kong APIs gets hard in real life?

On slides, an API gateway looks like a neat single entry point. In production, your Kong landscape usually looks more like this:

• Multiple Kong runtimes / Konnect control planes for different business units or regions
• Separate workspaces per team or environment (dev, test, prod)
• APIs documented in a mix of OpenAPI files in Git, Postman collections, wikis, and Notion pages
• Some services are still hitting legacy gateways or direct backends

Kong has invested in a Service Catalog and Dev Portal that help you centralize services and publish documentation to API consumers. But as soon as you

• Run more than one gateway (Kong + Azure + Apigee + API Gateway, etc.)
• Need a single catalog for internal, partner, and external consumers
• Want cross-gateway governance and reporting

You end up with yet another island of API information instead of a true, unified catalog. That’s the gap DigitalAPI is designed to fill.

Why Kong’s native catalog & dev portal is not enough?

Before we talk about DigitalAPI, let’s be fair about what Kong does well. Kong Konnect’s Service Catalog gives you a centralized inventory of services and APIs and can automatically discover services from runtimes and integrated systems, complete with governance scorecards. The Dev Portal is a customizable website where developers can find docs, try APIs, and manage their credentials. 

Where teams usually feel the pain is when

1. Your world is not only Kong

You may also have Azure API Management, Apigee, MuleSoft, AWS API Gateway, or direct APIs exposed from containers and functions. Kong’s catalog is excellent for the Kong universe, but not meant to be the single pane of glass for everything.

2. Developers don’t want to hop portals

If each gateway (or each BU) exposes its own Dev Portal, developers must guess where an API lives and log into multiple portals. That kills discoverability and reuse.

3. API producers don’t want to duplicate work

They’re already maintaining specs in Git, collections in Postman, and policies in Kong. Manually keeping a separate portal and catalog aligned is error-prone and time-consuming. Industry guidance is clear: a good API catalog should be automated and integrated across tools, not managed by hand.

The pattern that works better for large organisations is to use Kong as your runtime and policy engine. Use DigitalAPI as your multi-gateway, AI-ready catalog, and developer portal.

The Better Pattern: Kong for Traffic, DigitalAPI for Catalog & Consumption

Here’s the model:

• Kong remains your gateway layer, routing traffic, enforcing policies, handling auth, security, and performance.
  
• DigitalAPI becomes your central API catalog and developer portal, unifying APIs across Kong and other runtimes, attaching rich metadata, and providing self-serve discovery for humans (developers) and AI agents.

With this setup, you:

• Auto-inventory Kong APIs into DigitalAPI’s API Estate
• Attach owners, domains, lifecycle, and governance in one place
• Expose everything via a single DigitalAPI developer portal, even when the APIs run on different gateways
• Keep Kong as is, no need to rip and replace; you’re simply adding a smarter catalog on top

Step-by-Step: How to Catalog Kong APIs on DigitalAPI’s Developer Portal

Once you’ve decided to catalog your Kong APIs on DigitalAPI, the setup is surprisingly straightforward. You connect your Kong gateway, import all its services into the API Estate, and start using them.

1. Add a Kong gateway instance

Start by navigating to API Environements and selecting Add New Instance. This screen lets you onboard any gateway into DigitalAPI, including Apigee, Azure, AWS, MuleSoft, and in this case, Kong. Simply click the Kong tile to begin the setup. This establishes the connection that allows DigitalAPI to automatically discover and catalog all your Kong-managed APIs.

2. Configure and authenticate your Kong gateway

After selecting Kong, enter the details needed for DigitalAPI to connect securely to your control plane. Provide the connection type, management URL, and credentials, then assign a name and business area for easy identification. Once filled in, click Test Connection to validate access. This step ensures DigitalAPI can safely read your Kong services and routes before cataloging them.

3. Import APIs from your Kong gateway instance

Once your Kong instance is connected, DigitalAPI lets you import all available services and routes with a single click. Simply open the added Kong environment and hit Import APIs. Helix automatically scans your Kong gateway, discovers every API, and brings them into the unified API Estate. This removes all manual effort and ensures your catalog reflects the real, deployed state of your Kong APIs.

4. View all imported Kong APIs in the API estate

After the import completes, every API discovered from your Kong gateway appears inside the API Estate. This is your unified inventory, showing names, versions, visibility, and metadata in a clean, searchable layout. From here, you can enrich each Kong API with tags, domains, owners, and documentation. This transforms raw gateway services into a structured, human-friendly catalog ready for consumption across teams.

5. Bring in APIs from other sources

Beyond your Kong gateway, DigitalAPI lets you enrich your catalog with assets from Postman, SwaggerHub, GitHub, Azure Repos, and more. This means you can sync specs, collections, and documentation directly from the tools your teams already use. By combining gateway imports with source integrations, you create a complete, always-up-to-date catalog, no matter where your API artifacts live.

What you unlock by cataloging Kong APIs in DigitalAPI?

Once your Kong APIs are cataloged in DigitalAPI’s developer portal, you get:

• One catalog for many gateways: Start with Kong, then bring in APIs from Azure, Apigee, MuleSoft, AWS API Gateway, and more, without forcing teams to move off their existing runtimes.
• A single front door for developers and partners: Internal devs, partners, and even external fintechs see one portal, one search bar, and one onboarding flow.
• Better reuse and fewer duplicate APIs: A searchable, tagged catalog reduces the “I couldn’t find it, so I built it again” problem that plagues most enterprises.
• Stronger security and governance posture: Shadow APIs become visible, scorecards highlight gaps, and policies become consistent across gateways.
• AI-ready foundation: Both humans and AI agents need a reliable way to discover and understand APIs. A machine-readable, well-tagged API catalog is the backbone of AI-driven automation and agentic use cases.

FAQs

1. How is DigitalAPI different from Kong’s own Service Catalog and Dev Portal?

Kong’s Service Catalog and Dev Portal are excellent within the Kong ecosystem; they document and expose services running on Kong runtimes and integrated sources. DigitalAPI sits above the runtime layer: it unifies Kong APIs with APIs from other gateways and sources, provides a single portal for all consumers, and adds cross-gateway governance, AI-powered discovery, and product-style packaging.

2. Do we need to change anything in our Kong gateway configuration?

You’ll give DigitalAPI read access to your Kong control plane so it can discover services and routes. Kong still handles all traffic, routing, and enforcement. DigitalAPI focuses on catalog, documentation, governance, and self-serve access. In other words, Kong continues to handle the heavy lifting in production; DigitalAPI adds a unified, human-friendly, and AI-friendly layer on top.

3. Can we mix Kong APIs with other gateways in the same catalog?

Yes, that’s one of the main reasons enterprises adopt DigitalAPI. You can import APIs from Kong alongside Azure API Management, Apigee, MuleSoft, AWS API Gateway, and even specs from Git or SwaggerHub. Developers and partners don’t have to care which gateway is behind an API; they see one consistent catalog and portal.

4. How does this help with AI agents and future API use cases?

AI agents and LLM-powered tools need machine-readable catalogs to reliably discover, select, and call APIs. Industry trends are moving toward standardized API catalogs that can be consumed by tools and agents, not just humans. By cataloging your Kong APIs in DigitalAPI, with clean metadata, specs, and domains, you create the foundation for safe, governed, AI-driven automation on top of your existing Kong estate.