Article: RFC 9745 and its impact on API governance

Introduction

This project is part of a research article on the impact of RFC 9745 on API governance. RFC 9745 introduces guidelines for managing API deprecations and sunsets, ensuring better communication with API consumers. This project includes a Go-based parser that processes OpenAPI specifications and generates a Krakend configuration file. The generated configuration file is then used to run a Krakend API Gateway, which serves as an API proxy. The project demonstrates how to handle deprecated API operations and communicate deprecation policies effectively.

Project Structure

├── build
│   ├── krakend
│   │   ├── config
│   │   │   ├── partials          		# Partial configuration files for Krakend
│   │   │   ├── settings          		# General settings for Krakend
│   │   │   │   └── operations.json 	# JSON file defining API operations
│   │   │   └── templates         		# Templates for generating Krakend configurations
│   │   │       └── endpoints.tmpl 		# Template for API endpoints
│   │   ├── Dockerfile            		# Dockerfile to build the Krakend service
│   │   ├── krakend.tmpl          		# Main Krakend configuration template
│   │   └── plugin
│   │       └── deprecated-headers.lua 	# Lua plugin for handling deprecated headers
│   └── parser
│       ├── go.mod                		# Go module definition for the parser
│       ├── go.sum                		# Go dependencies checksum
│       ├── main.go               		# Main entry point for the parser
│       └── README.md             		# Documentation for the parser
├── docker-compose.yaml           		# Docker Compose configuration
├── openapi.yaml                  		# OpenAPI specification for the API
└── README.md                     		# Project documentation

• build/krakend: Contains all files related to the Krakend API Gateway, including configuration, templates, and plugins.
• build/parser: Contains the Go-based parser for processing API specifications.
• docker-compose.yaml: Defines the services, networks, and volumes for running the project with Docker Compose.
• openapi.yaml: The OpenAPI specification file describing the API endpoints and operations.
• README.md: Documentation for the project, including usage instructions and structure.

Running the Project with Docker Compose

To run the project using Docker Compose, follow these steps:

1. Prerequisites:

   • Ensure you have Docker and Docker Compose installed on your system.
   • Verify that the docker-compose.yaml file is correctly configured for your environment.

2. Start the Services: Start the services using Docker Compose (rebuilding the project every time):

   docker compose up --build -d

3. The services will start, and you can access them as defined in the docker-compose.yaml file.

To stop the services, press Ctrl+C and run:

docker compose down

Making requests to the API

NOT deprecated operation example

Request

curl -i -X GET localhost:8080/users/1

Response Headers

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 250
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2025 23:23:43 GMT
X-Krakend: Version 2.9.3
X-Krakend-Completed: false

DEPRECATED operation example

Request

curl -i -X DELETE localhost:8080/users/1

Response Headers

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 253
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2025 23:24:27 GMT
X-Deprecated-At: @1751327999
X-Deprecated-Link: https://api.example.com/deprecation-policy
X-Deprecated-Sunset: Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 UTC
X-Krakend: Version 2.9.3
X-Krakend-Completed: false