FlexGate Quickstart Guide

Get up and running with FlexGate in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

• Node.js 18.x or higher (Download)
• PostgreSQL 15.x or higher (Download)
• Redis 7.x or higher (Optional, for session management)

Installation

Option 1: NPM (Recommended for Quick Start)

# Install FlexGate globally
npm install -g flexgate-proxy

# Or add to your project
npm install flexgate-proxy

Option 2: Podman/Docker (Recommended for Production)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/tapas100/flexgate-proxy.git
cd flexgate-proxy

# Start all services with Podman
make start

# Or if you don't have make installed
~/Library/Python/3.9/bin/podman-compose up -d

Your First API Gateway

1. Initialize FlexGate

# Create a new FlexGate project
mkdir my-gateway
cd my-gateway

# Initialize configuration
flexgate init

This creates:

my-gateway/
├── config/
│   └── proxy.yml          # Gateway configuration
├── .env                    # Environment variables
└── flexgate.config.js      # Advanced configuration

2. Configure Your First Route

Edit config/proxy.yml:

version: 1.0.0
routes:
  - path: /api/users
    upstream: https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users
    methods:
      - GET
      - POST
    enabled: true
    rateLimit:
      enabled: true
      max: 100
      windowMs: 60000  # 1 minute

3. Start the Gateway

# Start FlexGate
flexgate start

# Or with npm
npm start

You should see:

✅ FlexGate started successfully!
🌐 Gateway running on http://localhost:3000
📊 Admin UI available at http://localhost:3000/admin
📈 Metrics endpoint: http://localhost:3000/metrics

4. Test Your API Gateway

# Test the proxied endpoint
curl http://localhost:3000/api/users

# You should see the response from jsonplaceholder.typicode.com

5. Open the Admin UI

Navigate to: http://localhost:3000/admin

Default Credentials:

• Username: admin
• Password: admin (Change this immediately!)

What's Next?

Now that you have FlexGate running, explore these guides:

• Admin UI Guide - Configure routes, view metrics, manage settings
• Route Configuration - Advanced routing and load balancing
• Authentication & Security - Secure your gateway
• Monitoring & Metrics - Set up monitoring
• Production Deployment - Deploy to production

Common Issues

Port Already in Use

If port 3000 is already in use:

# Set a custom port
PORT=8080 flexgate start

Or update .env:

PORT=8080

Database Connection Failed

FlexGate runs in-memory mode if database is unavailable, but for persistence:

# Create PostgreSQL database
createdb flexgate

# Update DATABASE_URL in .env
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/flexgate

Admin UI Not Loading

1. Check FlexGate is running: curl http://localhost:3000/health
2. Clear browser cache
3. Check console for errors (F12)
4. Verify ADMIN_ENABLED=true in .env

Getting Help

• 📚 Full Documentation
• 💬 GitHub Discussions
• 🐛 Report Issues
• 💼 Commercial Support

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Next Steps: Configure Your First Route →