The MeshTCPRoute
policy allows you to alter and redirect TCP requests
depending on where the request is coming from and where it’s going to.

Mesh TCP Route
TargetRef support matrix
For more information, see the matching docs.
Configuration
Unlike other outbound policies, MeshTCPRoute
doesn’t contain default
directly in the to
array. The default
section is nested inside rules
. For more information review the MeshTCPRoute policy documentation.
spec:
targetRef: # top-level targetRef selects a group of proxies to configure
kind: Mesh|Dataplane
to:
- targetRef: # targetRef selects a destination (outbound listener)
kind: MeshService
name: backend
rules:
- default: # configuration applied for the matched TCP traffic
backendRefs: [...]
Default configuration
The following describes the default configuration settings of the MeshTCPRoute
policy:
-
backendRefs
: (Optional) List of destinations for the request to be redirected to-
kind
: One ofMeshService
,MeshServiceSubset
,MeshExtenalService
-
name
: The service name -
tags
: Service tags. These must be specified if thekind
isMeshServiceSubset
. -
weight
: When a request matches the route, the choice of an upstream cluster is determined by its weight. Total weight is a sum of all weights in thebackendRefs
list.
-
Gateways
In order to route TCP traffic for a MeshGateway, you need to target the
MeshGateway in spec.targetRef
and set spec.to[].targetRef.kind: Mesh
.
Interactions with MeshHTTPRoute
MeshHTTPRoute
takes priority over MeshTCPRoute
when both are defined for the same service, and the matching MeshTCPRoute
is ignored.
Interactions with TrafficRoute
MeshTCPRoute
takes priority over TrafficRoute
when a proxy is targeted by both policies.
All legacy policies like Retry
, TrafficLog
, Timeout
etc. only match on routes defined by TrafficRoute
.
All new recommended policies like MeshRetry
, MeshAccessLog
, MeshTimeout
etc. match on routes defined by MeshTCPRoute
and TrafficRoute
.
If you don’t use legacy policies, it’s recommended to remove any existing TrafficRoute
.
Otherwise, it’s recommended to migrate to new policies and then removing TrafficRoute
.