Gateway Integration Overview

Field	Value
Document ID	ASCEND-SDK-007
Version	2026.04
Last Updated	April 2026
Author	Ascend Engineering Team
Publisher	OW-KAI Technologies Inc.
Classification	Enterprise Client Documentation
Compliance	SOC 2 CC6.1/CC6.2, PCI-DSS 7.1/8.3, HIPAA 164.312, NIST 800-53 AC-2/SI-4

Reading Time: 5 minutes | Skill Level: Beginner

Overview

ASCEND Gateway integrations provide zero-code AI governance for your existing API infrastructure. Route all AI agent traffic through ASCEND without modifying agent code.

Fail-Secure Behavior

When ASCEND is unreachable, all gateway integrations deny requests by default. Ensure ASCEND availability and configure health checks before enabling governance in production.

Why Gateway Integration?

Benefit	Description
Zero Code Changes	No modifications to existing agents
Centralized Control	Single point of governance
Fail Secure	Deny by default on errors
Performance	Decision caching for sub-millisecond latency
Observability	Complete audit trail

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     GATEWAY ARCHITECTURE                             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                       │
│   ┌─────────┐        ┌─────────────┐        ┌─────────────┐         │
│   │   AI    │        │   API       │        │   Backend   │         │
│   │  Agent  │───────▶│   Gateway   │───────▶│   Service   │         │
│   │         │        │             │        │             │         │
│   └─────────┘        └──────┬──────┘        └─────────────┘         │
│                             │                                        │
│                             │ Authorization                          │
│                             │ Request                                │
│                             ▼                                        │
│                      ┌─────────────┐                                 │
│                      │   ASCEND    │                                 │
│                      │  Authorizer │                                 │
│                      │             │                                 │
│                      │ ✓ Evaluate  │                                 │
│                      │ ✓ Cache     │                                 │
│                      │ ✓ Log       │                                 │
│                      └──────┬──────┘                                 │
│                             │                                        │
│                             │ Policy Decision                        │
│                             ▼                                        │
│                      ┌─────────────┐                                 │
│                      │   ASCEND    │                                 │
│                      │  Platform   │                                 │
│                      └─────────────┘                                 │
│                                                                       │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Available Integrations

AWS Lambda Authorizer

For Amazon API Gateway (REST API, HTTP API).

# CloudFormation
Resources:
  AscendAuthorizer:
    Type: AWS::ApiGateway::Authorizer
    Properties:
      Type: REQUEST
      AuthorizerUri: !Sub arn:aws:lambda:${AWS::Region}:...

Best For:

• AWS-native deployments
• Serverless architectures
• API Gateway users

📖 Full Guide

Kong Plugin

Native Kong Gateway plugin.

# Kong declarative config
plugins:
  - name: ascend
    config:
      api_key: owkai_your_key_here
      environment: production

Best For:

• Kong Gateway users
• Multi-cloud deployments
• Plugin-based architecture

📖 Full Guide

Envoy/Istio ext_authz

External authorization for service mesh.

# Envoy configuration
http_filters:
  - name: envoy.filters.http.ext_authz
    typed_config:
      grpc_service:
        envoy_grpc:
          cluster_name: ascend-authz

Best For:

• Kubernetes deployments
• Istio service mesh
• Microservices architecture

📖 Full Guide

Comparison

Feature	Lambda	Kong	Envoy
Platform	AWS	Any	Any
Protocol	HTTP	HTTP	gRPC
Caching	✅	✅	✅
Fail Mode	Configurable	Configurable	Configurable
Metrics	CloudWatch	Kong	Prometheus
Deployment	Serverless	Plugin	Sidecar/Pod

Common Configuration

All gateway integrations share these concepts:

Agent ID Header

Identify the calling agent:

X-Ascend-Agent-ID: my-agent-001

If not provided, behavior depends on configuration:

• Required mode: Request is denied
• Optional mode: Request is allowed (not governed)
• Default ID mode: Uses a default agent ID

Path Exclusions

Skip governance for certain paths:

excluded_paths:
  - "^/health$"
  - "^/metrics$"
  - "^/public/.*"

Fail Mode

Behavior when ASCEND is unavailable:

Mode	Behavior	Use Case
fail_closed	Deny all requests	High security (default)
fail_open	Allow all requests	High availability

Decision Caching

Cache approved decisions for performance:

Setting	Description	Recommendation
cache_ttl: 0	No caching	High-security
cache_ttl: 60	60 second cache	Balanced
cache_ttl: 300	5 minute cache	High-volume

Response Headers

All integrations add these headers to responses:

Header	Description	Example
X-Ascend-Decision	Decision result	approved, denied
X-Ascend-Action-ID	Action identifier	12345
X-Ascend-Risk-Score	Risk score	3.5
X-Ascend-Risk-Level	Risk level	low, medium, high

Decision Flow

Request Received
      │
      ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ Path        │──── Excluded ────▶ Allow (no governance)
│ Excluded?   │
└─────────────┘
      │ No
      ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ Agent ID    │──── Missing + Required ──▶ Deny (401)
│ Present?    │
│             │──── Missing + Optional ──▶ Allow (no governance)
└─────────────┘
      │ Present
      ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ Check       │──── Hit ────▶ Allow (cached)
│ Cache       │
└─────────────┘
      │ Miss
      ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ Call        │──── Error + Fail Closed ──▶ Deny (503)
│ ASCEND      │
│             │──── Error + Fail Open ────▶ Allow (warning)
└─────────────┘
      │ Success
      ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ Process     │──── Approved ──▶ Allow + Cache
│ Decision    │
│             │──── Pending ───▶ Deny (or Allow based on config)
│             │
│             │──── Denied ────▶ Deny (403)
└─────────────┘

Quick Start

1. Choose Your Gateway

If you use...	Choose...
Amazon API Gateway	Lambda Authorizer
Kong Gateway	Kong Plugin
Envoy Proxy / Istio	Envoy ext_authz

2. Deploy the Authorizer

Follow the specific guide for your platform.

3. Configure Your Agents

Add the agent ID header to requests:

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.yourcompany.com/data",
    headers={
        "X-Ascend-Agent-ID": "my-agent-001"
    }
)

4. Monitor in Dashboard

View all governed requests in the ASCEND dashboard.

Next Steps

Choose your gateway integration:

• AWS Lambda Authorizer — For API Gateway
• Kong Plugin — For Kong Gateway
• Envoy/Istio — For service mesh

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Document Version: 2026.04 | Last Updated: April 2026