gatewayd

gatewayd is a term used in software to describe a daemon that acts as a gateway between clients and one or more backend services. In practice, gatewayd programs serve as an intermediary layer that accepts requests, translates or marshals them to target protocols, enforces authentication and authorization, and routes responses back to clients. They are commonly used to implement API gateways, protocol bridges, and content gateways in distributed systems.

Overview and role: A gatewayd typically runs as a background service or system daemon on a server or edge device. It exposes a defined API or protocol, handles connection management, load balancing, caching, and logging, and can perform protocol translation (for example between HTTP/REST, WebSocket, or message queues) and data format conversion.

Architecture and features: Gatewayd architectures are modular, consisting of a core router, protocol adapters or plugins, authentication and authorization modules, and optional caching or storage backends. Configuration is usually via files (YAML/JSON) or environment variables, with support for plugins or extensions to add new protocols or backends. Security features commonly include TLS, token-based authentication, IP allowlists, rate limiting, and auditing.

Use cases: In microservices, gatewayd functions as an API gateway, enforcing policies and aggregating responses. In blockchain or decentralized services, gatewayd can bridge networks or provide gateway endpoints to external clients. In content delivery or storage, a gatewayd may serve content from a backend store to clients.

Note: gatewayd is a name used by multiple open-source projects; specifics vary by implementation. If you had a particular gatewayd in mind, please specify the project or repository.