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Relixy Concepts

How it works

Relixy is configured through resource definition files (YAML or JSON) that describe:

  1. OpenAPI resources — an OpenAPI 2.0 or 3.x specification (referenced by path/URL or inlined) plus proxy settings.
  2. RelyAuth resources — an authentication configuration applied globally across all proxied APIs.

At startup, Relixy loads all resource files matching glob patterns defined in the server configuration. It builds a routing tree from each OpenAPI spec and registers HTTP handlers. Incoming requests are authenticated (if a RelyAuth resource is configured), matched to a route, optionally transformed, and forwarded to the upstream server.

Key concepts

ConceptDescription
Server configurationTop-level config for ports, TLS, CORS, telemetry, and resource file discovery
Resource definitionsYAML/JSON files that define OpenAPI specs and auth config
Security schemesCredentials Relixy injects when calling upstream APIs
TransformationsPath, header, and body rewriting per operation

Deployment modes

Relixy ships two binaries for different deployment patterns:

REST gateway

The rest binary exposes your OpenAPI-defined endpoints directly. Each API resource is mounted at a configurable base path. Clients send requests to Relixy, which proxies them to your upstream services.

DDN plugin

The ddn binary integrates Relixy as a Hasura DDN plugin. Relixy runs a /ddn/pre-route endpoint that DDN uses for request routing, enabling REST APIs to be consumed inside a GraphQL/DDN environment.