Concept / Term · Established
Managed API entry point
A central front door that routes API calls to back-end services and can apply authentication, rate limits, logging and other shared controls.
Field note
An API gateway is the controlled entry point in front of backend services. It routes requests and can centralise authentication, rate limits, logging, protocol translation and other cross-cutting policies.
The gateway pattern adapts the familiar network-gateway idea to application interfaces: clients enter through one managed boundary rather than discovering every internal service.
Mobile and web clients call the gateway, which validates the request and forwards it to the appropriate internal API.
It simplifies clients and strengthens control, but an overloaded gateway can become a bottleneck or a single point of failure.
In a sentence“The gateway rejects unauthenticated requests before they reach the account service.”