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⚙️ Configuration Guide

Crate Community Edition (CE) is designed for simplicity and focuses on local, YAML-based configuration. This guide covers all aspects of configuring your Crate CE instance.

YAML Configuration

Each file in the configuration directory corresponds to an Organization. Files must be named after a valid UUID representing the Organization ID:

bc7e5f3a-8b1e-4b1a-9c1a-1a2b3c4d5e6f.yaml

Organization Schema

The YAML file follows the OrganizationConfig schema:

# Display name for the organization
name: "My Local Organization"

# List of domains managed by this organization
domains:
  - host: "api.local.crate.cc"
    details:
      # Routing policy
      routing:
        type: "round-robin"  # Options: "round-robin", "failover"
        destinations:
          - "http://backend-1:8080"
          - "http://backend-2:8081"
      
      # Security settings
      security:
        # Optional: Isolate admin routes on a dedicated subdomain
        admin_subdomain: "admin"
        # Optional: List of IP addresses/CIDR blocks allowed for admin routes
        ip_allowlist: ["127.0.0.1", "192.168.1.0/24"]

Routing Strategies

  • round-robin: Distributes incoming requests equally among all health-checked destinations.
  • failover: Sends all traffic to the first available destination; switches to the next only if the current one fails.

Environment Variables

Crate CE can be customized using the following environment variables:

Variable Description Default
CONFIG_STORAGE_DIR The directory where Crate CE looks for YAML configuration files. /etc/crate/config
TRAFFIC_LOG_FILE Set to true to enable local traffic logging to a file. false
TRAFFIC_LOG_PATH The path to the traffic log file (output is JSONL). ./traffic.jsonl
LOG_FILE Set to true to enable system logs to a file. false
LOG_PATH The path to the system log file. ./gateway.log
PORT The port for the Gateway to listen on. 9980

Configuration Directory Structure

A typical Crate CE configuration directory would look like this:

/etc/crate/config/
├── bc7e5f3a-8b1e-4b1a-9c1a-1a2b3c4d5e6f.yaml
├── 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000.yaml
└── f47ac10b-58cc-4372-a567-0e02b2c3d479.yaml

Crate CE will automatically load and watch these files for changes. Adding, removing, or modifying these files will take effect immediately without a restart.

Next Steps