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API MANAGEMENT
Gravitee: Event-Driven API Management for the Swiss Financial Center
APIs are the backbone of the digital bank—and with AI agents, a whole new class of API consumers is emerging. Gravitee has evolved from an open-source gateway into the leading platform for API, event, and AI agent governance. We’ll show what sets the platform apart from a technical standpoint and why it’s particularly interesting for the Swiss financial center.
Gartner Leader
Magic Quadrant for API Management, 2nd Year in a Row
350+ customers
Enterprise customers in over 30 countries, with a strong presence in the financial sector
Version 4.12
Release, June 2026
Open Source
Apache-licensed core, full autonomy
What is Gravitee?
Gravitee is an event-native API management platform with an open-source core. Unlike traditional gateways, which were built primarily for REST, Gravitee treats synchronous and asynchronous communication as equals: REST, SOAP, GraphQL, and gRPC all run through the same gateway as Kafka, MQTT, WebSocket, Server-Sent Events, and Webhooks. The gateway itself is implemented in Java on a reactive stack—lightweight, horizontally scalable, and, according to the vendor, up to 4x faster than comparable solutions.
The platform consists of four integrated product lines that are controlled via a common control plane:
The platform consists of four integrated product lines that are controlled via a common control plane:
API Management
Full lifecycle for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and WebSocket: design, policies, deployment, developer portal, analytics—including federation of AWS, Azure, Apigee, MuleSoft, and IBM gateways.
Event Management
Secure Kafka, MQTT, and JMS streams (ActiveMQ, IBM MQ, Solace) and expose them as products—without touching brokers or clients. Includes a Kafka gateway and a governed Kafka console.
Access Management
Full-featured IAM: OAuth2/OIDC, MFA, biometrics, FAPI compliance, mTLS plans, and—as of version 4.11—RFC 8693 token exchange for delegated AI agents.
AI Agent Management
Governance for LLM access, MCP tool execution, and agent-to-agent traffic: Prompt Guard Rails, PII filtering, token budgets, and full lineage.
Architecture in Detail
At its core, a Gravitee deployment consists of four components: the gateway (data plane), the management API, the console (admin UI), and the developer portal. MongoDB or an RDBMS (PostgreSQL, Oracle) serves as the backend for configuration, while Elasticsearch or OpenSearch is used for analytics—with support for Elasticsearch 9.x since version 4.9.
APIs are described declaratively as v4 API definitions —a JSON model that decouples entry points (how consumers access the API: HTTP proxy, WebSocket, SSE, Webhook) from endpoints (where the backend resides: HTTP, Kafka, MQTT, JMS). It is precisely this protocol mediation that defines the “event-native” concept: For example, a Kafka topic can be exposed as a WebSocket or SSE API without the consumer ever needing a Kafka client.
APIs are described declaratively as v4 API definitions —a JSON model that decouples entry points (how consumers access the API: HTTP proxy, WebSocket, SSE, Webhook) from endpoints (where the backend resides: HTTP, Kafka, MQTT, JMS). It is precisely this protocol mediation that defines the “event-native” concept: For example, a Kafka topic can be exposed as a WebSocket or SSE API without the consumer ever needing a Kafka client.
Kubernetes-native with the Gravitee Kubernetes Operator (GKO)
In environments such as OpenShift or AKS, APIs can be managed entirely as custom resources—including GitOps. A minimal v4 API as a CRD looks like this:
# ApiV4Definition als Kubernetes Custom Resource (GitOps-ready)
apiVersion: gravitee.io/v1alpha1
kind: ApiV4Definition
metadata:
name: payments-api
spec:
name: "Payments API"
version: "1.0"
type: PROXY
listeners:
- type: HTTP
paths:
- path: /payments
entrypoints:
- type: http-proxy
endpointGroups:
- name: core-banking
type: http-proxy
endpoints:
- name: avaloq-adapter
configuration:
target: https://core.internal.bank/payments
flows:
- name: rate-limit
request:
- policy: rate-limit
configuration:
rate:
limit: 100
periodTimeUnit: SECONDS
Over 50 predefined policies (rate limiting, transformation, message filtering, JSON/XML threat protection, IP filtering, and many more) are visually orchestrated in Policy Studio. Dynamic logic runs via the Gravitee Expression Language (EL) —for example, “
{#request.headers['X-Client-Id'] != null} ” as a flow condition. Starting with version 4.9, there’s even an AI assistant that generates EL expressions from natural language. What's New? Releases 4.9 through 4.11
Gravitee is moving at a rapid pace. Its last two major releases clearly show the direction it’s heading: Kafka governance, observability—and, above all, securing AI workloads.
4.9 October 2025
- Gravitee MCP Server: The management platform itself can be controlled via the Model Context Protocol—AI assistants such as Claude or Cursor can audit APIs, analyze logs, and manage subscriptions, with permissions scoped via service accounts.
- Kafka Console: A governed UI for topics, partitions, and consumer groups—every action is routed through central gateway policies, without direct access to production or exposed credentials.
- v2-to-v4 migration with a single click: Automatic compatibility check and secure rollback—important because v1 APIs will no longer be supported starting with version 4.12.
- EL Assistant (AI-powered), Execution Transparency Analytics, and a new API traffic dashboard for v4 proxies.
- Multi-Cloud: SaaS gateways now also available on GCP—Gravitee Cloud now covers all three hyperscalers with regional data residency.
4.11 April 2026 – current release
- AI-powered PII filtering: A new gateway policy automatically detects and redacts personally identifiable information in prompts and responses before they reach an LLM provider—essential for DSG/GDPR-compliant use of GenAI in banks.
- RFC 8693 Token Exchange: AI agents act on behalf of a user—without impersonation. The delegated token carries ”
act” claims, has a narrow scope, is short-lived, and is automatically invalidated when permissions are revoked. The entire delegation chain remains auditable. - A2A Proxy: Dedicated v4 API type for agent-to-agent communication, including policies such as prompt guardrails, rate limiting, and IP filtering.
- Semantic Caching: LLM responses are cached based on semantic similarity rather than exact text matches—measurably reducing token costs and latency.
- LLM Observability: Dashboards for prompt/completion tokens, token usage per request, and traffic patterns directly in the APIM Console.
- API Products: Bundle multiple APIs into a single product—one subscription, access to all included APIs. Ideal for an “open banking” package as a business offering.
- JMS Support & Kafka Policy Rules: Integration with ActiveMQ, IBM MQ, and Solace; governance rules directly at the Kafka protocol level (replication factor, compression, batch size) with Enforce/Override/Throttle actions. In addition, dynamic mTLS for Kafka subscriptions without a gateway restart.
Context: With version 4.11, Gravitee clearly positions itself as a governance layer for the age of agents. Those who set up API governance properly today will have the infrastructure tomorrow to allow AI agents to access core systems in a controlled manner—with identity, audit trails, and cost control starting with the very first request.
Why This Is Relevant for Swiss Banks
The Swiss financial center faces a dual challenge: opening up interfaces (open banking, partner networks, government processes) while simultaneously meeting the strictest requirements for data protection, traceability, and auditability. Gravitee addresses both aspects:
| Requirement | Gravitee response |
|---|---|
| Data Sovereignty | Open-source core, fully operable on-premises or in a Swiss cloud—declaratively managed on OpenShift/Kubernetes via GKO. No vendor lock-in. |
| Financial-Grade Security | FAPI-compliant platform, mTLS plans with client certificates per subscription, OAuth2/OIDC, MFA—requirements that are increasingly mandatory in the context of open banking. |
| Auditability | Comprehensive analytics, execution transparency diagnostics, centralized policy enforcement via shared policy groups, and automated API scoring—governance as an inherent feature of the infrastructure. |
| Evolving Landscapes | Federated API Management integrates existing AWS, Azure, Apigee, MuleSoft, or IBM gateways into a single catalog, policy layer, and portal—without migration, and with the option for phased implementation. |
| Event-Driven Processes | Kafka streams (e.g., from core banking eventing) can be turned into governed APIs—with the same plans, quotas, and subscriptions as traditional REST APIs. |
| GenAI Under Control | PII redaction at the gateway, token budgets, semantic caching, and delegated agent identities (RFC 8693) make AI use cases compliant with regulations. |
The combination with process automation is particularly exciting: In BPM-driven workflows—such as payment approvals, onboarding, or regulatory reporting processes—the Process Engine orchestrates the business logic, while Gravitee secures, throttles, versions, and makes the interfaces observable. API governance and process automation are two sides of the same coin.
Our Conclusion
Gravitee combines the openness of an open-source solution with the depth of governance offered by an enterprise platform—and is currently a step ahead of most competitors when it comes to event streaming and AI agent governance. Its native Kafka support, FAPI compliance, federated approach, and rapid release cycle make the platform one of the most compelling options for financial institutions looking to future-proof their integration landscape.
Evaluating Gravitee – with ONLU
We support banks and financial service providers in the evaluation, implementation, and operation of modern integration and automation platforms—from architecture consulting to deployment on Kubernetes and OpenShift, and on to integration with core banking systems. We’d be happy to show you, in a no-obligation consultation, what a phased implementation in your system landscape might look like.
ONLU AG is a Swiss IT consulting firm specializing in process automation, cloud solutions, and AI in the financial sector. Product information as of July 2026 (Gravitee Platform 4.11).
