Gateway API Inference Extension (GAIE)

Gateway API Inference Extension Setup with Dynamo

Integrate Dynamo with the Gateway API Inference Extension, also known as Inference Gateway, for intelligent KV-aware request routing at the gateway layer.

Features

• EPP’s default kv-routing approach is not token-aware because the prompt is not tokenized. But the Dynamo plugin uses a token-aware KV algorithm. It employs the dynamo router which implements kv routing by running your model’s tokenizer inline. The EPP plugin configuration is embedded in the recipe-based GAIE deploy YAMLs under recipes/llama-3-70b/vllm/agg/gaie/ and recipes/llama-3-70b/vllm/disagg-single-node/gaie/, following the GAIE/EPP configuration layout used by this repository.

• Dynamo Integration with the Inference Gateway supports Aggregated and Disaggregated Serving. A request only exercises disaggregated routing when the EPP config defines a prefill profile and prefill workers are available. The recipe examples provide separate aggregated and disaggregated configs under recipes/llama-3-70b/vllm/agg/gaie/ and recipes/llama-3-70b/vllm/disagg-single-node/gaie/. Unless DYN_ENFORCE_DISAGG=true, deployments without a prefill profile or prefill workers fall back to aggregated serving.

• GAIE integration supports Data Parallelism.

• If you want to use LoRA deploy Dynamo without the Inference Gateway.

• These setups use agentgateway as the Inference Gateway implementation.

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes cluster with kubectl configured
• NVIDIA GPU drivers installed on worker nodes

Installation Steps

1. Install Dynamo Platform

See Quickstart Guide to install Dynamo Kubernetes Platform. If you are installing from the source tree rather than a release chart, follow Advanced: Build from Source and run helm dep build ./platform/ before helm install so the vendored subcharts match the local chart contents.

2. Deploy Inference Gateway

First, deploy an inference gateway service. In this example, we’ll install agentgateway with the inference extension enabled.

$
cd deploy/inference-gateway
$
export NAMESPACE=my-model # You can put the inference gateway into another namespace and then adjust your http-route.yaml
$
./scripts/install_gaie_crd_agentgateway.sh

This script installs the Gateway API CRDs, the GAIE CRDs, agentgateway into agentgateway-system, and a Gateway named inference-gateway into ${NAMESPACE}.

f. Verify the Gateway is running

$
kubectl get gateway inference-gateway -n ${NAMESPACE}
$
$
# Sample output
$
# NAME                CLASS      ADDRESS   PROGRAMMED   AGE
$
# inference-gateway   agentgateway   <none>   True         1m

3. Setup secrets

Do not forget docker registry secret if needed.

$
kubectl create secret docker-registry docker-imagepullsecret \
>
  --docker-server=$DOCKER_SERVER \
>
  --docker-username=$DOCKER_USERNAME \
>
  --docker-password=$DOCKER_PASSWORD \
>
  --namespace=$NAMESPACE

Do not forget to include the HuggingFace token.

$
export HF_TOKEN=your_hf_token
$
kubectl create secret generic hf-token-secret \
>
  --from-literal=HF_TOKEN=${HF_TOKEN} \
>
  -n ${NAMESPACE}

4. Build EPP image (Optional)

You can either use the provided Dynamo FrontEnd image for the EPP image or you need to build your own Dynamo EPP custom image following the steps below.

$
# export env vars
$
export DOCKER_SERVER=ghcr.io/nvidia/dynamo	# Container registry
$
export IMAGE_TAG=YOUR-TAG # Or auto from git tag
$
cd deploy/inference-gateway/epp
$
make all # Do everything in one command
$
# or make all-push to also push
$
$
$
# Or step-by-step
$
make dynamo-lib # Build Dynamo library and copy to project
$
make image-load # Build Docker image and load locally
$
make image-push # Build and push to registry
$
make info # Check image tag

All-in-one Targets

5. Deploy

We provide an example for the Qwen vLLM below. You have to deploy the Dynamo Graph and the HTTPRoute. The example http-route.yaml resolves the Gateway in the same namespace as the HTTPRoute, so the simplest path is to apply the route in the same namespace where you installed the Gateway (i.e. ${NAMESPACE}). If your Gateway lives in a different namespace, add parentRefs[].namespace to point at it explicitly:

1
  parentRefs:
2
    - group: gateway.networking.k8s.io
3
      kind: Gateway
4
      name: inference-gateway
5
      namespace: my-model # only needed if the Gateway is in a different namespace

$
cd <dynamo-source-root>
$
# kubectl get httproutes -n my-model # Make sure you do not have an incompatible HTTPRoute running, delete if so.
$
# Choose disagg or agg example
$
kubectl apply -f examples/backends/vllm/deploy/gaie/disagg.yaml -n my-model
$
# or
$
kubectl apply -f examples/backends/vllm/deploy/gaie/agg.yaml -n my-model
$
# make sure to apply the route
$
kubectl apply -f examples/backends/vllm/deploy/gaie/http-route.yaml -n my-model

Examples for other models can be found in the recipes folder.

$
# Deploy PVC, having first Update `storageClassName` in recipes/llama-3-70b/model-cache/model-cache.yaml to match your cluster before deploying
$
kubectl apply -f recipes/llama-3-70b/model-cache/model-cache.yaml  -n ${NAMESPACE}
$
kubectl apply -f recipes/llama-3-70b/model-cache/model-download.yaml  -n ${NAMESPACE}

We provide examples for llama-3-70b vLLM under the recipes/llama-3-70b/vllm/agg/gaie/ for aggregated and recipes/llama-3-70b/vllm/disagg-single-node/gaie/ for disaggregated serving. Note for the aggregated serving you need to disable DYN_ENFORCE_DISAGG in epp config.

$
  - name: DYN_ENFORCE_DISAGG
$
    value: "false"

Use the proper folder in commands below.

$
# Deploy your Dynamo Graph.
$
$
# agg
$
kubectl apply -f recipes/llama-3-70b/vllm/agg/gaie/deploy.yaml -n ${NAMESPACE}
$
# Deploy the GAIE http-route CR. The route resolves the Gateway in the same namespace by default;
$
# if your Gateway is elsewhere, add parentRefs[].namespace before applying.
$
kubectl apply -f recipes/llama-3-70b/vllm/agg/gaie/http-route.yaml -n ${NAMESPACE}
$
$
# or disagg
$
kubectl apply -f recipes/llama-3-70b/vllm/disagg-single-node/gaie/deploy.yaml  -n ${NAMESPACE}
$
kubectl apply -f recipes/llama-3-70b/vllm/disagg-single-node/gaie/http-route.yaml -n ${NAMESPACE}

• When using GAIE the FrontEnd does not choose the workers. The routing is determined in the EPP.
• The FrontEnd must run with --router-mode direct so that it respects the EPP’s routing decisions passed via request headers.
• Use the frontendSidecar field on a worker service to have the operator automatically inject a fully configured frontend sidecar container with all required Dynamo env vars, probes, and ports:

1
frontendSidecar:
2
  image: nvcr.io/nvidia/ai-dynamo/vllm-runtime:1.1.1
3
  args:
4
    - --router-mode
5
    - direct
6
  envFromSecret: hf-token-secret

• The pre-selected worker (decode and prefill in case of the disaggregated serving) are passed in the request headers.
• The --router-mode direct flag ensures the routing respects this selection.

Startup Probe Timeout: The EPP has a default startup probe timeout of 30 minutes (10s × 180 failures). If your model takes longer to load, increase the failureThreshold in the EPP’s startupProbe. For example, to allow 60 minutes for startup:

1
extraPodSpec:
2
  mainContainer:
3
    startupProbe:
4
      failureThreshold: 360  # 10s × 360 = 60 minutes

Gateway Namespace The example http-route.yaml resolves the Gateway in the same namespace as the route. If you install the Gateway in one namespace and apply the route in another, add parentRefs[].namespace: <gateway-namespace> to http-route.yaml.

Common Vars for Routing Configuration:

Enabling KV-Aware Routing (most precise)

KV-aware routing uses live KV cache block events from workers so the EPP can route requests to the worker with the best prefix cache overlap. To enable it (default):

1. Workers — enable prefix caching and KV event publishing. Each worker must publish KV cache events to event plane (NATS/ZMQ) so the EPP’s router can track per-worker cache state.
   • vLLM: Pass --enable-prefix-caching and --kv-events-config '{"enable_kv_cache_events":true}'.
   • SGLang: Pass --kv-events-config with the appropriate endpoint.
   • TRT-LLM: Pass --publish-events-and-metrics.
2. EPP — leave DYN_USE_KV_EVENTS at its default (true). The EPP subscribes to worker KV events via event plane (NATS/ZMQ) and uses them for prefix-overlap scoring.
3. Block size — must be consistent. The --block-size on all workers must match DYN_KV_CACHE_BLOCK_SIZE on the EPP (default: 128). Mismatched block sizes cause incorrect block hash computation.

Disabling KV-Aware Routing

To disable the EPP from listening for KV events (e.g., when prefix caching is off on workers, or for simpler load-balanced routing):

1. EPP: Set DYN_USE_KV_EVENTS=false. The router falls back to approximate mode (routing decisions are tracked locally with TTL decay instead of live KV events from workers).
2. Workers: Pass --no-enable-prefix-caching to disable prefix caching entirely. Without prefix caching, no KV events are generated regardless of other flags.
3. Optionally set DYN_ROUTER_KV_OVERLAP_SCORE_CREDIT=0 on the EPP to skip prefix-overlap scoring altogether, making the router select workers based on load only.

• Set DYN_BUSY_THRESHOLD to configure the upper bound on how “full” a worker can be (often derived from kv_active_blocks or other load metrics) before the router skips it. If the selected worker exceeds this value, routing falls back to the next best candidate. By default the value is negative meaning this is not enabled.
• Set DYN_ENFORCE_DISAGG=true (default: false) to control per-request behavior when prefill workers are unavailable:
  • true (recommended for disaggregated serving): Requests fail with an error if prefill workers are not available. Use this when disaggregated serving is required and aggregated fallback is not acceptable.
  • false (default): Requests gracefully fall back to aggregated mode (skip prefill, route directly to decode) when prefill workers are not available. When prefill workers appear later, subsequent requests automatically use disaggregated routing.
• Set DYN_ROUTER_KV_OVERLAP_SCORE_CREDIT to control the device-local prefix-overlap credit multiplier, from 0.0 to 1.0. Higher values bias toward reusing workers with similar cached prefixes. (default: 1)
• Set DYN_ROUTER_PREFILL_LOAD_SCALE to scale adjusted prompt-side prefill load before decode blocks are added. (default: 1)
• Set DYN_ROUTER_TEMPERATURE (default: 0.0) to soften or sharpen normalized worker sampling. Low temperature makes the router pick the top candidate deterministically; higher temperature lets lower-scoring workers through more often (exploration).
• DYN_ROUTER_REPLICA_SYNC — Enable replica synchronization (default: false)
• DYN_ROUTER_TRACK_ACTIVE_BLOCKS — Track active blocks (default: true)
• DYN_ROUTER_TRACK_OUTPUT_BLOCKS — Track output blocks during generation (default: false)
• See the KV cache routing design for details.

Service Mesh Integration (Istio)

When running under a service mesh such as Istio, the mesh sidecar proxy may conflict with the EPP’s own TLS serving, causing connection failures (double-TLS). To avoid this, the mesh must be told how to connect to the EPP service via an Istio DestinationRule.

The Dynamo operator can generate this DestinationRule automatically. Enable it by setting the dynamo.serviceMesh parameters when installing or upgrading the Dynamo platform Helm chart:

$
helm install dynamo deploy/helm/charts/platform \
>
  --set dynamo.serviceMesh.enabled=true

Or equivalently in a custom values file:

1
dynamo:
2
  serviceMesh:
3
    enabled: true
4
    provider: "istio"
5
    istio:
6
      tlsMode: "SIMPLE"
7
      insecureSkipVerify: true

Helm Parameters

When enabled, the operator produces a DestinationRule for each EPP service equivalent to:

1
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
2
kind: DestinationRule
3
metadata:
4
  name: <epp-service-name>
5
spec:
6
  host: <epp-service-name>.<namespace>.svc.cluster.local
7
  trafficPolicy:
8
    tls:
9
      mode: SIMPLE
10
      insecureSkipVerify: true

If you are not using the Dynamo operator’s Helm chart, you must create this DestinationRule manually for each EPP service. Without it, Istio’s default mTLS policy will conflict with the EPP’s gRPC TLS endpoint.

Inference-gateway Istio sidecar exclusion

When namespace-level Istio sidecar injection is enabled (istio-injection=enabled), the agentgateway-proxy pod also receives an Istio sidecar. This sidecar intercepts the ext_proc gRPC connection from agentgateway-proxy to EPP (port 9002) and routes it through PassthroughCluster, which breaks the connection and causes all inference requests to return HTTP 500 with an empty body.

The fix is to tell agentgateway to stamp sidecar.istio.io/inject: "false" on the proxy pod template so the Istio webhook skips that pod. EPP and worker pods still receive sidecars normally.

You have two options depending on how you set up the gateway:

Option A: Per-gateway AgentgatewayParameters (recommended)

This is what install_gaie_crd_agentgateway.sh does automatically. It only affects the inference-gateway proxy pods and leaves any other agentgateway-managed gateways untouched.

1. Create an AgentgatewayParameters resource in the same namespace as the inference-gateway Gateway (e.g. dynamo-cloud). It must be co-located with the Gateway because the Gateway API spec.infrastructure.parametersRef is a LocalParametersReference — it has no namespace field.

   1
   apiVersion: agentgateway.dev/v1alpha1
   2
   kind: AgentgatewayParameters
   3
   metadata:
   4
     name: inference-gateway-params
   5
     namespace: dynamo-cloud   # same as the Gateway
   6
   spec:
   7
     deployment:
   8
       spec:
   9
         template:
   10
           metadata:
   11
             annotations:
   12
               sidecar.istio.io/inject: "false"

   Apply it with server-side apply (recommended by agentgateway):

   $
   kubectl apply --server-side -n dynamo-cloud -f agentgateway-params.yaml

2. Wire the existing Gateway to use it. If the Gateway already exists, patch it in place:

   $
   kubectl patch gateway inference-gateway -n dynamo-cloud --type='merge' -p '{
   >
     "spec": {
   >
       "infrastructure": {
   >
         "parametersRef": {
   >
           "group": "agentgateway.dev",
   >
           "kind":  "AgentgatewayParameters",
   >
           "name":  "inference-gateway-params"
   >
         }
   >
       }
   >
     }
   >
   }'

   Or include the infrastructure block directly in your Gateway manifest:

   1
   apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
   2
   kind: Gateway
   3
   metadata:
   4
     name: inference-gateway
   5
     namespace: dynamo-cloud
   6
   spec:
   7
     gatewayClassName: agentgateway
   8
     infrastructure:
   9
       parametersRef:
   10
         group: agentgateway.dev
   11
         kind: AgentgatewayParameters
   12
         name: inference-gateway-params
   13
     listeners:
   14
       - name: http
   15
         port: 80
   16
         protocol: HTTP

3. agentgateway will roll the proxy pod. Verify the new pod no longer has an istio-proxy container:

   $
   kubectl get pod -l gateway.networking.k8s.io/gateway-name=inference-gateway \
   >
     -n dynamo-cloud \
   >
     -o jsonpath='{.items[0].spec.containers[*].name}{"\n"}'
   $
   # Expect: agentgateway   (NOT "agentgateway istio-proxy")

Option B: Patch the default AgentgatewayParameters CR (cluster-wide)

The agentgateway controller creates a default AgentgatewayParameters resource named agentgateway in agentgateway-system. Any Gateway that does not set spec.infrastructure.parametersRef inherits this default. Patching it affects all agentgateway-managed proxies in the cluster.

$
kubectl patch agentgatewayparameters agentgateway -n agentgateway-system \
>
  --type='merge' -p '{
>
  "spec": {
>
    "deployment": {
>
      "spec": {
>
        "template": {
>
          "metadata": {
>
            "annotations": {
>
              "sidecar.istio.io/inject": "false"
>
            }
>
          }
>
        }
>
      }
>
    }
>
  }
>
}'

Use Option A instead if you have multiple agentgateway-managed gateways in the cluster and only want the inference-gateway proxy to skip injection.

The annotation is a no-op on clusters where Istio is not installed, so it is safe to set unconditionally.

6. Verify Installation

Check that all resources are properly deployed:

$
kubectl get inferencepool -n ${NAMESPACE}
$
kubectl get httproute -n ${NAMESPACE}
$
kubectl get service -n ${NAMESPACE}
$
kubectl get gateway -n ${NAMESPACE}

Sample output:

$
# kubectl get inferencepool
$
NAME        AGE
$
qwen-pool   33m
$
$
# kubectl get httproute
$
NAME        HOSTNAMES   AGE
$
qwen-route               33m

7. Usage

The Inference Gateway provides HTTP endpoints for model inference.

1: Populate gateway URL for your k8s cluster

a. To test the integration in minikube, proceed as below: Use minikube tunnel to expose the gateway to the host. This requires sudo access to the host machine. Alternatively, you can use port-forward to expose the gateway to the host as shown in alternative (b).

$
# in first terminal
$
ps aux | grep "minikube tunnel" | grep -v grep # make sure minikube tunnel is not already running.
$
minikube tunnel # start the tunnel
$
$
# in second terminal where you want to send inference requests
$
GATEWAY_URL=$(kubectl get svc inference-gateway -n my-model -o jsonpath='{.spec.clusterIP}') && echo $GATEWAY_URL

b. To test on a cluster use commands below:

use port-forward to expose the gateway to the host

$
# in first terminal
$
kubectl port-forward svc/inference-gateway 8000:80 -n ${NAMESPACE}
$
# for NAMESPACE use the namespace where the Gateway service was created, for example agentgateway-system
$
$
# in second terminal where you want to send inference requests
$
GATEWAY_URL=http://localhost:8000

2: Check models deployed to inference gateway

a. Query models:

$
# in the second terminal where you GATEWAY_URL is set
$
curl $GATEWAY_URL/v1/models | jq .
$
# or if you added the host name to http route:
$
curl -H "Host: llama3-70b-disagg.example.com" $GATEWAY_URL/v1/models | jq .

Sample output:

1
{
2
  "data": [
3
    {
4
      "created": 1753768323,
5
      "id": "Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B",
6
      "object": "object",
7
      "owned_by": "nvidia"
8
    }
9
  ],
10
  "object": "list"
11
}

b. Send inference request to gateway:

$
MODEL_NAME="Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B"
$
curl $GATEWAY_URL/v1/chat/completions \
>
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
>
  -d '{
>
      "model": "'"${MODEL_NAME}"'",
>
      "messages": [
>
      {
>
          "role": "user",
>
          "content": "In the heart of Eldoria, an ancient land of boundless magic and mysterious creatures, lies the long-forgotten city of Aeloria. Once a beacon of knowledge and power, Aeloria was buried beneath the shifting sands of time, lost to the world for centuries. You are an intrepid explorer, known for your unparalleled curiosity and courage, who has stumbled upon an ancient map hinting at ests that Aeloria holds a secret so profound that it has the potential to reshape the very fabric of reality. Your journey will take you through treacherous deserts, enchanted forests, and across perilous mountain ranges. Your Task: Character Background: Develop a detailed background for your character. Describe their motivations for seeking out Aeloria, their skills and weaknesses, and any personal connections to the ancient city or its legends. Are they driven by a quest for knowledge, a search for lost familt clue is hidden."
>
      }
>
      ],
>
      "stream":false,
>
      "max_tokens": 30,
>
      "temperature": 0.0
>
    }'

or

$
MODEL_NAME="RedHatAI/Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct-FP8-dynamic"
$
curl -H "Host: llama3-70b-disagg.example.com" http://localhost:8000/v1/chat/completions \
>
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
>
  -d '{
>
      "model": "'"${MODEL_NAME}"'",
>
      "messages": [
>
      {
>
          "role": "user",
>
          "content": "In the heart of Eldoria, an ancient land of boundless magic and mysterious creatures, lies the long-forgotten city of Aeloria. Once a beacon of knowledge and power, Aeloria was buried beneath the shifting sands of time, lost to the world for centuries. You are an intrepid explorer, known for your unparalleled curiosity and courage, who has stumbled upon an ancient map hinting at ests that Aeloria holds a secret so profound that it has the potential to reshape the very fabric of reality. Your journey will take you through treacherous deserts, enchanted forests, and across perilous mountain ranges. Your Task: Character Background: Develop a detailed background for your character. Describe their motivations for seeking out Aeloria, their skills and weaknesses, and any personal connections to the ancient city or its legends. Are they driven by a quest for knowledge, a search for lost familt clue is hidden."
>
      }
>
      ],
>
      "stream":false,
>
      "max_tokens": 30,
>
      "temperature": 0.0
>
    }'

Sample inference output:

1
{
2
  "choices": [
3
    {
4
      "finish_reason": "stop",
5
      "index": 0,
6
      "logprobs": null,
7
      "message": {
8
        "audio": null,
9
        "content": "<think>\nOkay, I need to develop a character background for the user's query. Let me start by understanding the requirements. The character is an",
10
        "function_call": null,
11
        "refusal": null,
12
        "role": "assistant",
13
        "tool_calls": null
14
      }
15
    }
16
  ],
17
  "created": 1753768682,
18
  "id": "chatcmpl-772289b8-5998-4f6d-bd61-3659b684b347",
19
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B",
20
  "object": "chat.completion",
21
  "service_tier": null,
22
  "system_fingerprint": null,
23
  "usage": {
24
    "completion_tokens": 29,
25
    "completion_tokens_details": null,
26
    "prompt_tokens": 196,
27
    "prompt_tokens_details": null,
28
    "total_tokens": 225
29
  }
30
}

If you have more than one HTTPRoute running on the cluster Add the host to your http-route.yaml and add the header curl -H "Host: llama3-70b-agg.example.com" ... or curl -H "Host: llama3-70b-disagg.example.com" http://localhost:8000/v1/models

$
spec:
$
  hostnames:
$
    - llama3-70b-agg.example.com

8. Deleting the installation

If you need to uninstall run:

$
kubectl delete dynamoGraphDeployment vllm-agg
$
helm uninstall dynamo-gaie -n my-model
$
$
# To uninstall GAIE
$
# 1. Delete the inference-gateway
$
kubectl delete gateway inference-gateway --ignore-not-found
$
$
# 2. Uninstall agentgateway helm releases
$
helm uninstall agentgateway -n agentgateway-system
$
helm uninstall agentgateway-crds -n agentgateway-system
$
$
# 3. Delete the agentgateway-system namespace (optional, cleans up everything in it)
$
kubectl delete namespace agentgateway-system --ignore-not-found
$
$
# 4. Delete the Inference Extension CRDs
$
IGW_LATEST_RELEASE=v1.5.0-rc.2
$
kubectl delete -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api-inference-extension/releases/download/${IGW_LATEST_RELEASE}/manifests.yaml --ignore-not-found
$
$
# 5. Delete the Gateway API CRDs
$
GATEWAY_API_VERSION=v1.5.1
$
kubectl delete -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/releases/download/$GATEWAY_API_VERSION/standard-install.yaml --ignore-not-found

Gateway API Inference Extension Integration

This section documents the updated plugin implementation for Gateway API Inference Extension v1.5.0-rc.2.

Router bookkeeping operations

EPP performs Dynamo router book keeping operations so the FrontEnd’s Router does not have to sync its state.

Header Routing Hints

Since v1.5.0-rc.1, the EPP uses headers and body mutations for communicating routing decisions. The plugins set HTTP headers for worker targeting and inject pre-computed token IDs into the request body (nvext.token_data) so the frontend sidecar can skip redundant tokenization.

Headers Set by Dynamo Plugins