Configuration reference

The gateway is configured via a conf.json file placed in the project root. The file is loaded at startup. All self-hosted deployments — Node.js, Docker, and EC2 — use this same format.

Example

conf.json

{
  "plugins_enabled": [
    "default",
    "portkey",
    "aporia",
    "sydelabs",
    "pillar",
    "patronus",
    "pangea",
    "promptsecurity",
    "panw-prisma-airs",
    "walledai"
  ],
  "credentials": {
    "portkey": {
      "apiKey": "..."
    }
  },
  "cache": false,
  "integrations": [
    {
      "provider": "anthropic",
      "slug": "dev_team_anthropic",
      "credentials": {
        "apiKey": "sk-ant-"
      },
      "rate_limits": [
        {
          "type": "requests",
          "unit": "rph",
          "value": 3
        },
        {
          "type": "tokens",
          "unit": "rph",
          "value": 3000
        }
      ],
      "models": [
        {
          "slug": "claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219",
          "status": "active",
          "pricing_config": null
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Top-level fields

string[]

List of guardrail and integration plugin identifiers to enable. The default plugin is always required. Additional plugins correspond to third-party guardrail providers.Available values: default, portkey, qualifire, aporia, sydelabs, pillar, patronus, pangea, promptsecurity, panw-prisma-airs, walledai

object

Top-level credentials for enabled plugins that require API keys (e.g. Portkey itself). Each key is a plugin identifier and its value is a credentials object.

{
  "credentials": {
    "portkey": {
      "apiKey": "pk-..."
    }
  }
}

boolean

default:"false"

Enable in-memory response caching. When true, the gateway intercepts repeated identical requests and returns cached responses without forwarding to the upstream provider.For persistent caching across restarts or multiple instances, use the REDIS_CONNECTION_STRING environment variable instead.

object[]

Array of provider integration configurations. Each entry registers a named provider integration with its own credentials, rate limits, and model list.See the integrations fields section below for full details.

Integrations fields

Each object in the integrations array supports the following fields:

string

required

The AI provider identifier. Examples: anthropic, openai, azure, cohere, mistral.

string

required

A unique human-readable name for this integration. Used to reference this integration in routing configs and logs.

object

required

Provider-specific credentials. For most providers this is an apiKey string:

{
  "credentials": {
    "apiKey": "sk-..."
  }
}

object[]

Optional array of rate limit rules applied to this integration. Each rule has three fields:

Field	Type	Description
`type`	`"requests"` \| `"tokens"`	Whether to limit by request count or token count
`unit`	`"rph"`	Rate limit window. Currently `rph` (requests/tokens per hour)
`value`	`number`	Maximum allowed requests or tokens within the window

{
  "rate_limits": [
    { "type": "requests", "unit": "rph", "value": 100 },
    { "type": "tokens",   "unit": "rph", "value": 50000 }
  ]
}

object[]

Optional list of models available through this integration. Each entry has the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
`slug`	`string`	Model identifier as expected by the provider API (e.g. `claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219`)
`status`	`"active"` \| `"inactive"`	Whether the model is available for routing
`pricing_config`	`object` \| `null`	Optional custom pricing configuration

Environment variables

string

Redis connection string for persistent, distributed response caching. When set (Node.js runtime only), the gateway connects to Redis on startup and uses it as the cache backend instead of in-memory storage.

REDIS_CONNECTION_STRING=redis://your-redis-host:6379

Redis caching is only supported on the Node.js runtime. It is not available on Cloudflare Workers.

Mounting conf.json in Docker

When running via Docker, mount your local conf.json into the container at /app/conf.json:

docker run --rm -p 8787:8787 \
  -v $(pwd)/conf.json:/app/conf.json \
  -e REDIS_CONNECTION_STRING=redis://your-redis-host:6379 \
  portkeyai/gateway:latest

Get Started

Deployment

Core Concepts

Guardrails

MCP Gateway

Integrations

Plugin Development

Example

Top-level fields

Integrations fields

Environment variables

Mounting conf.json in Docker

​Example

​Top-level fields

​Integrations fields

​Environment variables

​Mounting conf.json in Docker

Example

Top-level fields

Integrations fields

Environment variables

Mounting conf.json in Docker