aid: bfe
name: BFE
description: BFE (Beyond Front End) is an open-source layer 7 load balancer developed by Baidu, providing advanced traffic
  routing, forwarding, and load balancing capabilities with support for HTTP, HTTPS, HTTP/2, WebSocket, TLS, and gRPC. BFE
  is a CNCF sandbox project licensed under Apache 2.0.
type: Index
image: https://kinlane-productions.s3.amazonaws.com/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
- Load Balancer
- Networking
- Open Source
- Traffic Management
- CNCF
- Baidu
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bfe/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2025-01-01'
modified: '2026-05-19'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: bfe:bfe-management-api
  name: BFE Management API
  description: The BFE Management API provides internal monitoring metrics, configuration reload, and Go pprof profiling endpoints.
    This API should only be exposed on internal networks.
  humanURL: https://www.bfe-networks.net/en_us/operation/api/
  baseURL: http://localhost:8421
  tags:
  - Management
  - Monitoring
  - Configuration
  - Observability
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.bfe-networks.net/en_us/operation/api/
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bfe/refs/heads/main/openapi/bfe-management-api.yaml
  - type: NaftikoCapability
    url: capabilities/management-debug.yaml
  - type: NaftikoCapability
    url: capabilities/management-monitor.yaml
  - type: NaftikoCapability
    url: capabilities/management-reload.yaml
common:
- type: Portal
  url: https://www.bfe-networks.net/en_us/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.bfe-networks.net/en_us/
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/bfenetworks
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/bfenetworks/bfe
- type: Vocabulary
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bfe/refs/heads/main/vocabulary/bfe-vocabulary.yaml
- type: SpectralRules
  url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bfe/refs/heads/main/rules/bfe-spectral-rules.yml
- type: Features
  data:
  - name: Layer 7 Load Balancing
    description: Advanced HTTP/HTTPS/HTTP2 load balancing with pluggable algorithms.
  - name: Plugin Framework
    description: Extensible plugin system enabling custom traffic management logic.
  - name: Multi-tenancy
    description: Isolated configuration and routing per tenant.
  - name: Advanced Routing
    description: DSL-based routing rules for fine-grained traffic control.
  - name: Protocol Support
    description: HTTP, HTTPS, SPDY, HTTP/2, gRPC, WebSocket, TLS, FastCGI protocols.
  - name: Observability
    description: Built-in metrics, logging, and distributed tracing integration.
  - name: Dynamic Configuration
    description: Hot reload of routing and load balancing configuration without restart.
  - name: CNCF Sandbox
    description: Hosted as a CNCF sandbox project with active community governance.
- type: UseCases
  data:
  - name: Enterprise API Gateway
    description: Route and load balance API traffic with per-tenant isolation.
  - name: Microservices Traffic Management
    description: Manage east-west and north-south traffic in microservices architectures.
  - name: TLS Termination
    description: Terminate TLS/HTTPS at the edge and forward to backend HTTP services.
  - name: A/B Testing
    description: Route fractions of traffic to canary deployments using routing rules.
  - name: DDoS Mitigation
    description: Use traffic management plugins to detect and mitigate DDoS attacks.
- type: Integrations
  data:
  - name: Prometheus
    description: Export metrics to Prometheus for monitoring and alerting.
  - name: Kubernetes
    description: Deploy BFE as an ingress controller in Kubernetes clusters.
  - name: Docker
    description: Run BFE in Docker containers for containerized deployments.
  - name: Grafana
    description: Visualize BFE metrics in Grafana dashboards.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com