Endpoints is a distributed API management system. It provides an API console, hosting, logging, monitoring, and other features to help you create, share, maintain, and secure your APIs. This page provides an overview of Cloud Endpoints for OpenAPI. For information on other types of API frameworks supported by Endpoints, see All Endpoints docs.
Endpoints is available for use with the distributed Extensible Service Proxy (ESP) or the Extensible Service Proxy V2 (ESPv2). Each proxy provides support to the platforms described below:
- App Engine flexible (ESP only)
- Google Kubernetes Engine (ESP or ESPv2)
- Compute Engine (ESP or ESPv2)
- Kubernetes (ESP or ESPv2)
- App Engine standard (ESPv2 only)
- Cloud Functions (ESPv2 only)
- Cloud Run (ESPv2 only)
- Cloud Run for Anthos (ESPv2 only)
Endpoints with ESP
Endpoints uses the distributed Extensible Service Proxy (ESP) to provide low latency and high performance for serving even the most demanding APIs. ESP is a service proxy based on NGINX, so you can be confident that it scales as needed to handle simultaneous requests to your API. ESP runs in its own Docker container for better isolation and scalability and is distributed in the Container Registry. You can use it with:
Endpoints with ESPv2
ESPv2 is an Envoy-based high-performance, scalable proxy that runs in front of an OpenAPI or gRPC API backend. ESPv2 supports version 2 of the OpenAPI Specification and gRPC Specifications. You can use it with:
- App Engine standard environment
- Compute Engine
- Google Kubernetes Engine
- Kubernetes
- Cloud Run
- Cloud Run for Anthos
- Cloud Functions
Endpoints API management features
Whether you use Endpoints with ESP or ESPv2, it provides a number of significant API management features to enable you to develop, monitor, and control access to your APIs.
Logs and metrics
Endpoints uses Service Infrastructure to manage APIs and report logs and metrics. Most Google Cloud APIs use this same infrastructure. You can manage and monitor your APIs on the Endpoints Services page in the Google Cloud console.
API hosting
Endpoints is optimized for the Docker container environment. You can host your API anywhere Docker is supported so long as it has internet access to Google Cloud.
Developing a REST API with Endpoints for OpenAPI
Endpoints is language independent. You build your API in any language and REST framework that supports API description using an OpenAPI configuration file.
To use Endpoints for OpenAPI, you:
Configure Endpoints: You describe the API surface and configure Endpoints features, such as API keys or authentication rules, in an OpenAPI configuration file.
Deploy the Endpoints configuration: After you define your API in an OpenAPI configuration file, you use the Google Cloud CLI to deploy it to Service Management, which Endpoints uses to manage your API. Now Endpoints knows all about your API and how to secure it.
Deploy the API Backend: You deploy ESP or ESPv2 and your API backend to a supported Google Cloud backend, such as Compute Engine. ESP coordinates with Endpoints backend services to secure and monitor your API at runtime.
Controlling API access
Endpoints lets you configure your API to require an API key for any call and validates the API key. You can also use the Google Cloud console to share your API with other developers so they can enable your API and generate API keys to call it.
Authenticating API users
For most API calls, there is a user on the other end of each call. While API keys indicate which app is making a call to your API, the authentication process determines which user is using that app.
Note that your API server still needs to decide what the authenticated user can do with your API. For more information, see the Google Cloud Auth guide.
What's next
Get familiar with the deployment steps and see Endpoints features in action by doing the Quickstart for Endpoints, which uses scripts to deploy a sample API to a App Engine flexible backend.
Learn more about using Endpoints by walking through one of the Tutorials.