omnibioai-api-gateway

Zero-trust API gateway for the OmniBioAI platform.

Single enforced entry point for all service traffic. Every request is authenticated, authorized, quota-checked, and audited before reaching any backend service.

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Architecture

Internet / Client / Studio

↓

api-gateway :8080        ← single entry point

↓

TraceMiddleware          ← generates X-Trace-Id UUID

↓

AuthMiddleware           ← JWT validation via IAM client + Redis cache

↓

PolicyMiddleware         ← RBAC/ABAC via policy-engine

↓

HPCMiddleware            ← GPU/CPU quota via hpc-policy-engine (compute paths only)

↓

AuditMiddleware          ← async audit log via security-audit

↓

target service           ← workbench / tes / toolserver / model-registry / rag

Failure policy:

Layer	On failure
Auth	FAIL CLOSED → HTTP 401
Policy	FAIL CLOSED → HTTP 403
HPC quota	FAIL CLOSED → HTTP 403
Audit	FAIL OPEN → ignored

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Authentication Pipeline

Every request that isn't /health or / passes through this exact chain (app/main.py; middleware is registered LIFO, so TraceMiddleware — added last — runs first):

Incoming JWT
      │   Authorization: Bearer <jwt>
      ▼
IAM validation      AuthMiddleware → IAMClient.validate(token)
      │              — Redis-cached (key "iam:{token}", TTL 300s) first,
      │                else POST {IAM_URL}/auth/validate (1 retry on timeout)
      │              — no token or a rejected token → 401, fail closed
      ▼
Policy               PolicyMiddleware → PolicyClient.evaluate(...)
      │              — POSTs user_id/email/roles/permissions/action/resource
      │                to {POLICY_URL}/policy/evaluate
      │              — deny → 403, fail closed
      │              (HPCMiddleware runs next, compute paths only —
      │               GPU/CPU quota via {HPC_URL}/jobs/evaluate, also
      │               fail-closed)
      ▼
Forward Authorization header
      │              gateway.py rebuilds the outgoing header set from
      │                scratch (never re-forwards the raw incoming
      │                "authorization" key) and sets
      │                Authorization: Bearer <token> from
      │                request.state.token — the exact string
      │                AuthMiddleware already validated, not a re-parse
      │                of the original header — so the backend service
      │                can independently re-verify identity itself.
      ▼
Backend services     proxy.forward() to the resolved SERVICE_MAP target
                       (workbench / tes / toolserver / model-registry / rag)

The gateway never decodes a JWT itself — no local HS256/RS256 verification, no JWKS client. Every validation is a remote call to auth-service's /auth/validate (Redis-cached), delegating entirely to the shared identity layer described in omnibioai-auth's README rather than duplicating its verification logic.

Identity propagation

Alongside the re-forwarded Authorization header, the gateway also injects:

Header	Value	Notes
X-User-Id	The authenticated user's ID	Unsigned — a convenience header for services that don't want to re-decode the JWT; the re-forwarded Authorization bearer token is the only header a backend should actually trust for authorization decisions
X-Internal-Service	gateway	Marks the request as gateway-verified/internal

org_id/org_role are resolved into request.state.user during IAM validation but are not propagated as their own headers today — a backend that needs them re-derives them from the forwarded JWT itself (/auth/validate or a local jwt_verify.py, same as Control Center and Security Audit do).

Authorization forwarding

See "Forward Authorization header" in the pipeline above — this is not a service-to-service token, it is the caller's own validated bearer token, forwarded as-is so the backend service can verify it independently rather than trusting the gateway's decision blindly.

Trace IDs

TraceMiddleware (outermost — runs first) generates or echoes an X-Trace-Id UUID, attaches it to request.state.trace_id, sets it on the response, and it's propagated on to the backend request. Every middleware's own audit events (auth/policy/HPC denials, the final upstream-forward event) carry this same trace ID, so a single request can be followed end-to-end through the audit stream.

Service identity

There is currently no separate service-to-service credential (no service JWT, no mTLS, no API key) — the gateway calls backend services carrying only the unsigned X-Internal-Service: gateway marker plus the forwarded user bearer token. Backend-to-backend trust within the compose network is not independently authenticated at the gateway layer; each backend service is expected to validate the forwarded JWT itself if it needs a real identity guarantee.

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Features

• JWT authentication via IAM client (Redis-cached, sub-ms validation)
• RBAC/ABAC policy enforcement on every request
• GPU/CPU quota governance for compute requests
• Async audit logging via Redis Streams (never blocks requests)
• Original bearer-token forwarding to backend services (see Authentication Pipeline)
• Distributed trace ID propagation (X-Trace-Id header)
• Redis pub/sub cache invalidation on logout
• Rate limiting on auth endpoints (via nginx — 10 req/min, burst 5)

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Middleware Stack

Middleware is applied LIFO — last added runs first for requests:

Order	Middleware	Responsibility
1	TraceMiddleware	Generate X-Trace-Id, attach to request state
2	AuthMiddleware	Validate JWT via IAM client
3	PolicyMiddleware	RBAC/ABAC authorization decision
4	HPCMiddleware	GPU/CPU quota check (compute paths only)
5	AuditMiddleware	Fire async audit event to Redis Streams

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API Endpoints

Endpoint	Method	Auth	Description
/health	GET	—	Gateway health check
/auth/verify	GET	JWT	Verify token (used by nginx auth_request)
/{service}/{path}	GET/POST/PUT/DELETE	JWT	Proxy to target service — no /api prefix

Health check

curl http://localhost:8080/health
# {"status": "ok"}

All other requests require JWT

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  http://localhost:8080/tes/jobs

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Service Routing

Path	Target service
/workbench/*	workbench :8000
/tes/*	tes :8081
/toolserver/*	toolserver :9090
/model-registry/*	model-registry :8095
/rag/*	rag :8096

LIMS is not proxied through this gateway's SERVICE_MAP — it's reached via a separate route.

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Internal Headers Propagated

Header	Description
Authorization	The caller's original bearer token, re-forwarded verbatim (see Authentication Pipeline)
X-Trace-Id	UUID per request for distributed tracing
X-User-Id	Authenticated user ID (unsigned convenience header)
X-Internal-Service	Marks request as internal (gateway-verified)

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Running

Via OmniBioAI Studio (recommended)

cd ~/Desktop/machine/omnibioai-studio
docker compose up -d api-gateway

Access: http://localhost:8080

Environment variables

Set in omnibioai-studio/.env:

Variable	Default	Description
IAM_URL	http://omnibioai-auth:8000	Auth service URL
POLICY_URL	http://omnibioai-policy-engine:8001	Policy engine URL
HPC_URL	http://omnibioai-hpc-policy-engine:8002	HPC policy URL
REDIS_URL	redis://redis:6379	Redis for token cache + pub/sub
JWT_SECRET	—	JWT signing secret (auto-generated)
ROUTE_TIMEOUT	15	Upstream request timeout (seconds)

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Testing

cd ~/Desktop/machine/omnibioai-api-gateway
pytest tests/ -v --cov=app

# 33 tests passing
# 74% coverage
# Covers: auth middleware, policy middleware, HPC middleware,
#         trace middleware, config, gateway router

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Framework	FastAPI + Uvicorn
Auth	IAM client (httpx async + Redis cache)
Cache invalidation	Redis pub/sub
Tracing	UUID trace IDs via middleware
Proxying	httpx reverse proxy

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Related Services

Service	Role
omnibioai-auth	JWT issuance and validation
omnibioai-iam-client	Async IAM client with Redis cache
omnibioai-policy-engine	RBAC/ABAC authorization decisions
omnibioai-hpc-policy-engine	GPU/CPU quota governance
omnibioai-security-audit	Async audit event consumer
omnibioai-security-sdk	SDK wrapping the full security stack
omnibioai-studio	Manages gateway container lifecycle

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License

Apache 2.0

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Part of the OmniBioAI platform.