{
  "dataset": "glossary",
  "record": {
    "id": "agent-gateway",
    "term": "Agent Gateway",
    "category": "identity",
    "short_def": "A proxy that sits between agents and the tools or models they call, enforcing security, access-control and observability policies on agent traffic.",
    "long_def": "An agent gateway (sometimes 'agent firewall' for the security-focused variant) is a networking layer built on agent-native protocols like MCP and A2A. It inspects and governs agent-to-tool, agent-to-model and agent-to-agent calls — applying policy, redacting secrets and PII, blocking prompt-injection and SSRF, and logging everything. It is where a site can centrally control what visiting or internal agents are allowed to do.",
    "see_also": [
      "prompt-injection",
      "agent-identity",
      "mcp"
    ],
    "etymology_origin": {
      "value": null,
      "verify_status": "verify-against-primary-at-build",
      "source_hint": "https://agentgateway.dev/ — 'agent gateway'/'agent firewall' are an emerging product/infrastructure category (e.g. agentgateway.dev, MCP firewalls) with no single coiner or standards body"
    },
    "related_to": [
      "prompt-injection",
      "agent-identity",
      "mcp",
      "web-bot-auth",
      "delegation"
    ],
    "contrast_with": "Unlike a traditional network firewall, which filters IP/port traffic, an agent gateway understands agent protocols — it inspects MCP tool calls and A2A messages for prompt injection, secret leakage and policy violations, not just packets.",
    "example": "Open-source agent gateways such as agentgateway provide drop-in security, observability and access control for agent-to-LLM, agent-to-tool and agent-to-agent communication across frameworks.",
    "source": "https://agentgateway.dev/",
    "status": "emerging",
    "why_it_matters": "An agent gateway is where an organization enforces agent-readiness safely at scale — verifying identity, scoping permissions and blocking injection in one controllable choke point.",
    "sameAs": [],
    "bridge_entity": "protocols/identity/web-bot-auth",
    "last_verified": "2026-06-15",
    "md_twin": "/glossary/agent-gateway.md"
  }
}