Gateway API 1.4: New Features

Ready to rock your Kubernetes networking? The Kubernetes SIG Network community presented the General Availability (GA) release of Gateway API (v1.4.0)! Released on October 6, 2025, version 1.4.0 reinforces the path for modern, expressive, and extensible service networking in Kubernetes. Gateway API v1.4.0 brings three new features to the Standard channel (Gateway API's GA release channel): BackendTLSPolicy for TLS between gateways and backends supportedFeatures in GatewayClass status Named rules for Routes and introduces three new experimental features: Mesh resource for service mesh configuration Default gateways to ease configuration burden** externalAuth filter for HTTPRoute Graduations to Standard Channel Backend TLS policy Leads: Candace Holman , Norwin Schnyder , Katarzyna Łach GEP-1897: BackendTLSPolicy BackendTLSPolicy is a new Gateway API type for specifying the TLS configuration of the connection from the Gateway to backend pod(s). . Prior to the introduction of BackendTLSPol