Getting started with gRPC-Gateway

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This plugin should be enabled on a Kong route that serves the HTTP(S) protocol but proxies to a service with the GRPC(S) protocol.

Sample configuration via declarative (YAML) using an example Protobuf file, hello-gateway.proto:

_format_version: "3.0"
services:
- protocol: grpc
  host: localhost
  port: 9000
  routes:
  - protocols:
    - name: http
    paths:
    - /
    plugins:
    - name: grpc-gateway
      config:
        proto: path/to/hello-gateway.proto

Sample configuration via the Admin API:

1. Add the gRPC service:

     curl -X POST localhost:8001/services \
    --data name=grpc \
    --data protocol=grpc \
    --data host=localhost \
    --data port=9000
   

2. Add an http route:

     curl -X POST localhost:8001/services/grpc/routes \
    --data protocols=http \
    --data name=web-service \
    --data paths[]=/
   

3. Add the plugin to the route:

     curl -X POST localhost:8001/routes/web-service/plugins \
    --data name=grpc-gateway
   

The proto file must contain the HTTP REST to gRPC mapping rule.

Here’s an example Protobuf definition (hello-gateway.proto):

syntax = "proto3";

package hello;

service HelloService {
  rpc SayHello(HelloRequest) returns (HelloResponse) {
    option (google.api.http) = {
      get: "/v1/messages/{name}"
      additional_bindings {
        get: "/v1/messages/legacy/{name=**}"
      }
      post: "/v1/messages/"
      body: "*"
    };
  }
}


// The request message containing the user's name.
message HelloRequest {
  string name = 1;
}

// The response message containing the greetings
message HelloResponse {
  string message = 1;
}

Note: The option (google.api.http) = {} section is required.

Upload the Protobuf definition to your Kong Node:

docker cp hello-gateway.proto localhost:/usr/local/kong/

Test your setup. For example, you can send the following requests to Kong that translate to the corresponding gRPC requests:

curl -XGET localhost:8000/v1/messages/Kong2.0
{"message":"Hello Kong2.0"}
curl -XGET localhost:8000/v1/messages/legacy/Kong2.0
{"message":"Hello Kong2.0"}
curl -XGET localhost:8000/v1/messages/legacy/Kong2.0/more/paths
{"message":"Hello Kong2.0\/more\/paths"}
curl -XPOST localhost:8000/v1/messages/Kong2.0 -d '{"name":"kong2.0"}'
{"message":"Hello kong2.0"}

All syntax defined in Path template syntax is supported.

Object fields not mentioned in the endpoint paths as in /messages/{name} can be passed as URL arguments, for example /v1/messages?name=Kong. Structured arguments are supported.

For example, a request like the following:

/v1/messages?dest.name=Freddy&dest.address=1428+Elm+Street&message=One+Two...

is interpreted like the following JSON object:

{
  "dest": {
    "name": "Freddy",
    "address": "1428 Elm Street"
  },
  "message": "One Two..."
}

Similarly, fields of the type google.protobuf.Timestamp are converted to and from strings in ISO8601 format.

Currently only unary requests are supported; streaming requests are not supported.