For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt. Markdown versions of all docs pages are available by appending .md to any docs URL.

Direct Response

Return custom responses directly without forwarding to a backend.

Attaches to:

Directly respond to a request with a custom response using direct responseDirect ResponseA traffic management feature that returns a fixed response (body and status code) directly to the client without forwarding the request to a backend., without forwarding to any backend.

For example, the following configuration returns a 404 Not found! response.

# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://agentgateway.dev/schema/config
mcp:
  port: 3000
  policies:
    directResponse:
      body: "Not found!"
      status: 404
  targets:
  - name: everything
    stdio:
      cmd: npx
      args: ["@modelcontextprotocol/server-everything"]

# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://agentgateway.dev/schema/config
binds:
- port: 3000
  listeners:
  - routes:
    - policies:
        directResponse:
          body: "Not found!"
          status: 404

Conditional execution

To return a direct response only when a CEL expression matches, use the conditional field. For example, you can return 410 Gone on deprecated paths and let every other request reach the backend. For details, see Conditional policies.