Gateway

Why it matters

When you use multiple model providers, each with its own API format, auth mechanism, and error behavior, the integration burden compounds with every new model you add. A gateway gives you a single endpoint that handles routing, format translation, and failover across providers. But the observability benefit is equally important. Because every request flows through one layer, you get automatic tracing, cost tracking, and latency measurement without instrumenting each provider integration separately. This also creates a natural control point for governance. You can enforce rate limits, manage API keys centrally, enable caching, and apply access policies in one place rather than scattering that logic across your application code. For teams running production AI systems, a gateway turns provider management from an ongoing maintenance burden into a configuration problem. It also makes model comparisons trivial, because switching from one provider to another is a routing change rather than a code change.