Gravitee APIM 4.12 is now available, a release packed with updates that push the platform further toward AI-oriented API delivery, distributed rate limiting, and full observability. Here’s what matters most for teams running Gravitee in production.
Gravitee APIM 4.12: Java version requirement
APIM 4.12 is not compatible with Java 25. If you deploy via the RPM or ZIP distribution, run APIM on JRE 21. Docker deployments are unaffected because the official images ship pre-configured. If APIM and Access Management share a host, configure a dedicated JAVA_HOME for each instance.
AI-native: MCP arrives in the Developer Portal
The most strategic addition for AI teams is native support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Publishers can now embed a <gmd-install-mcp> widget directly into New Developer Portal pages, generating one-click installers and copyable configuration snippets for Cursor, VS Code, and Claude Desktop. MCP Proxy APIs automatically seed an unpublished Overview page with a pre-configured installer, adapting to both remote HTTP/SSE and local stdio-based servers. For organisations exposing APIs to AI agents, this turns onboarding into a single click.
Smarter rate limiting and Redis scaling
4.12 introduces a new Token-Bucket Rate Limiting policy that allows controlled bursts while holding a steady average rate, with strict (atomic) and async (high-throughput) modes. On the infrastructure side, the release adds a Hazelcast rate-limit repository as an alternative to Redis and full Redis Cluster support for rate limiting and distributed synchronisation, enabling horizontal, sharded scaling under heavy load.
Deeper observability with OpenTelemetry
Observability gets a major upgrade: OpenTelemetry tracing for Kafka-native APIs, OTel Logs integration for log-to-trace correlation between Loki and Tempo in Grafana, span attribute redaction to mask sensitive metadata before export, and policy description tracing for clearer troubleshooting. Native Kafka APIs also gain dedicated connection logs.
API Products mature
API Products become far more manageable, with direct membership and ownership management, product-level analytics and logging, and deployment with sharding tags for geographic distribution and multi-tenant isolation.
Import, patch, and manage APIs faster
New tooling lets you import and update v4 APIs from OpenAPI, Gravitee definitions, WSDL, or remote URLs, plus a standards-based PATCH endpoint (JSON Merge Patch / JSON Patch) for partial updates to v4 HTTP proxy APIs — with a dryRun option to validate before applying.
Security and secrets
Security enhancements include JWT nested-claim extraction via dot notation, an issuer whitelist for the SSL Enforcement policy, and a new Azure Key Vault secret provider.
Why it matters
Gravitee APIM 4.12 is a strong release for any organisation scaling APIs toward AI agents and high-throughput event streaming. The MCP portal tooling, token-bucket rate limiting, and OpenTelemetry depth are especially relevant if you are building an AI/Agent/MCP gateway strategy.
At CloudAPPI, we help teams adopt and get the most out of Gravitee — from upgrade planning and Java 21 migration to designing MCP and rate-limiting strategies. Talk to our team.
Source: Gravitee APIM 4.12 release notes.
