Repository: kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api-inference-extension

Issue:
EPP: Destination Endpoint Keys Should Not Be Flags
Here are the flags in question:

```go
	destinationEndpointHintKey = flag.String(
		"destinationEndpointHintKey",
		runserver.DefaultDestinationEndpointHintKey,
		"Header and response metadata key used by Envoy to route to the appropriate pod. This must match Envoy configuration.")
	destinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace = flag.String(
		"DestinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace",
		runserver.DefaultDestinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace,
		"The key for the outer namespace struct in the metadata field of the extproc response that is used to wrap the"+
			"target endpoint. If not set, then an outer namespace struct should not be created.")
```

These values **must** match on the Gateway. Therefore, they should not be configurable or the config should be exposed by InferencePool `ExtensionConnection`.

+1 on simply removing the flags until enough users demand to make them configurable.

Thoughts @ahg-g @kfswain @nirrozenbaum @robscott 

Hints from issue comments:
@ahg-g: sounds good to me@nirrozenbaum: SGTM@danehans: Note that https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api-inference-extension/pull/1282 added more flags that must be removed.@kfswain: Yeah, this sounds good. 

For posterity: Since the GW implementation is not user controlled but the EPP is, having a set protocol makes interaction easier. If we made these headers configurable that requires coordination that _all_ GW implementations would need to support. As @danehans mentions, best not to do this until there is strong demand.@danehans: Since InferencePool is being GA'd, we should discuss how these flags would be included in the API if they need to be configurable in the future. IMO, extending `ExtensionConnection` would make sense. For example:

```yaml
apiVersion: inference.networking.x-k8s.io/v1alpha2
kind: InferencePool
metadata:
  name: gateway-pool
  namespace: gwtest
spec:
  extensionRef:
    failureMode: FailOpen
    metadataKeys:
      destEndpoint: "foo" # Defaults to "x-gateway-destination-endpoint"
      destEndpointNamespace: "bar" # Defaults to "envoy.lb"
      destEndpointServed: "baz" # Defaults to"x-gateway-destination-endpoint-served"
)
```

__Note:__ Currently, `ExtensionConnection` is not present in the above example since the struct is being inlined:

```go
// Extension specifies how to configure an extension that runs the endpoint picker.
type Extension struct {
...
	// ExtensionConnection configures the connection between the gateway and the extension.
	ExtensionConnection `json:",inline"`
}
```@kfswain: That makes sense, I think the config looks clean like that too.@nirrozenbaum: @danehans your suggestion make sense to me.

Solution patch:
diff --git a/cmd/epp/runner/runner.go b/cmd/epp/runner/runner.go
index d138ee5..7d92c78 100644
--- a/cmd/epp/runner/runner.go
+++ b/cmd/epp/runner/runner.go
@@ -78,15 +78,6 @@ var (
 		"enable-pprof",
 		runserver.DefaultEnablePprof,
 		"Enables pprof handlers. Defaults to true. Set to false to disable pprof handlers.")
-	destinationEndpointHintKey = flag.String(
-		"destination-endpoint-hint-key",
-		runserver.DefaultDestinationEndpointHintKey,
-		"Header and response metadata key used by Envoy to route to the appropriate pod. This must match Envoy configuration.")
-	destinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace = flag.String(
-		"destination-endpoint-hint-metadata-namespace",
-		runserver.DefaultDestinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace,
-		"The key for the outer namespace struct in the metadata field of the extproc response that is used to wrap the"+
-			"target endpoint. If not set, then an outer namespace struct should not be created.")
 	poolName = flag.String(
 		"pool-name",
 		runserver.DefaultPoolName,
@@ -113,6 +104,20 @@ var (
 		"The path to the certificate for secure serving. The certificate and private key files "+
 			"are assumed to be named tls.crt and tls.key, respectively. If not set, and secureServing is enabled, "+
 			"then a self-signed certificate is used.")
+	// header/metadata flags
+	destinationEndpointHintKey = flag.String(
+		"destination-endpoint-hint-key",
+		runserver.DefaultDestinationEndpointHintKey,
+		"Header and response metadata key used by Envoy to route to the appropriate pod. This must match Envoy configuration.")
+	destinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace = flag.String(
+		"destination-endpoint-hint-metadata-namespace",
+		runserver.DefaultDestinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace,
+		"The key for the outer namespace struct in the metadata field of the extproc response that is used to wrap the"+
+			"target endpoint. If not set, then an outer namespace struct should not be created.")
+	fairnessIDHeaderKey = flag.String(
+		"fairness-id-header-key",
+		runserver.DefaultFairnessIDHeaderKey,
+		"The header key used to pass the fairness ID to be used in Flow Control.")
 	// metric flags
 	totalQueuedRequestsMetric = flag.String(
 		"total-queued-requests-metric",
@@ -337,6 +342,7 @@ func (r *Runner) Run(ctx context.Context) error {
 		GrpcPort:                                 *grpcPort,
 		DestinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace: *destinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace,
 		DestinationEndpointHintKey:               *destinationEndpointHintKey,
+		FairnessIDHeaderKey:                      *fairnessIDHeaderKey,
 		PoolNamespacedName:                       poolNamespacedName,
 		Datastore:                                datastore,
 		SecureServing:                            *secureServing,
diff --git a/config/charts/inferencepool/templates/epp-deployment.yaml b/config/charts/inferencepool/templates/epp-deployment.yaml
index 5ab9e2d..23957a3 100644
--- a/config/charts/inferencepool/templates/epp-deployment.yaml
+++ b/config/charts/inferencepool/templates/epp-deployment.yaml
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ spec:
         - "9002"
         - --grpc-health-port
         - "9003"
+        - --zap-encoder
+        - "json"
         - --metrics-port
         - "9090"
         - --config-file
diff --git a/config/charts/inferencepool/templates/rbac.yaml b/config/charts/inferencepool/templates/rbac.yaml
index a8d4d0e..a8d891c 100644
--- a/config/charts/inferencepool/templates/rbac.yaml
+++ b/config/charts/inferencepool/templates/rbac.yaml
@@ -42,6 +42,9 @@ rules:
 - apiGroups: ["inference.networking.x-k8s.io"]
   resources: ["inferenceobjectives", "inferencepools"]
   verbs: ["get", "watch", "list"]
+- apiGroups: ["inference.networking.k8s.io"]
+  resources: ["inferencepools"]
+  verbs: ["get", "watch", "list"]
 - apiGroups: [""]
   resources: ["pods"]
   verbs: ["get", "watch", "list"]
diff --git a/pkg/epp/handlers/request.go b/pkg/epp/handlers/request.go
index 5789b3c..b528ed7 100644
--- a/pkg/epp/handlers/request.go
+++ b/pkg/epp/handlers/request.go
@@ -57,6 +57,13 @@ func (s *StreamingServer) HandleRequestHeaders(ctx context.Context, reqCtx *Requ
 		} else {
 			reqCtx.Request.Headers[header.Key] = header.Value
 		}
+		if header.Key == s.fairnessIDHeaderKey {
+			reqCtx.FairnessID = reqCtx.Request.Headers[header.Key]
+			// remove the fairness ID header from the request headers,
+			// this is not data that should be manipulated or sent to the backend.
+			// It is only used for flow control.
+			delete(reqCtx.Request.Headers, header.Key)
+		}
 	}
 	return nil
 }
diff --git a/pkg/epp/handlers/server.go b/pkg/epp/handlers/server.go
index 3059660..62ffc8c 100644
--- a/pkg/epp/handlers/server.go
+++ b/pkg/epp/handlers/server.go
@@ -44,10 +44,11 @@ const (
 	bodyByteLimit = 62000
 )
 
-func NewStreamingServer(destinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace, destinationEndpointHintKey string, datastore Datastore, director Director) *StreamingServer {
+func NewStreamingServer(destinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace, destinationEndpointHintKey, fairnessIDHeaderKey string, datastore Datastore, director Director) *StreamingServer {
 	return &StreamingServer{
 		destinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace: destinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace,
 		destinationEndpointHintKey:               destinationEndpointHintKey,
+		fairnessIDHeaderKey:                      fairnessIDHeaderKey,
 		director:                                 director,
 		datastore:                                datastore,
 	}
@@ -72,6 +73,7 @@ type StreamingServer struct {
 	// The key acting as the outer namespace struct in the metadata extproc response to communicate
 	// back the picked endpoints.
 	destinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace string
+	fairnessIDHeaderKey                      string
 	datastore                                Datastore
 	director                                 Director
 }
@@ -85,6 +87,7 @@ type RequestContext struct {
 	TargetEndpoint            string
 	Model                     string
 	ResolvedTargetModel       string
+	FairnessID                string
 	RequestReceivedTimestamp  time.Time
 	ResponseCompleteTimestamp time.Time
 	RequestSize               int
@@ -192,8 +195,8 @@ func (s *StreamingServer) Process(srv extProcPb.ExternalProcessor_ProcessServer)
 
 		switch v := req.Request.(type) {
 		case *extProcPb.ProcessingRequest_RequestHeaders:
-			if requestId := requtil.ExtractHeaderValue(v, requtil.RequestIdHeaderKey); len(requestId) > 0 {
-				logger = logger.WithValues(requtil.RequestIdHeaderKey, requestId)
+			if requestID := requtil.ExtractHeaderValue(v, requtil.RequestIdHeaderKey); len(requestID) > 0 {
+				logger = logger.WithValues(requtil.RequestIdHeaderKey, requestID)
 				loggerTrace = logger.V(logutil.TRACE)
 				ctx = log.IntoContext(ctx, logger)
 			}
diff --git a/pkg/epp/requestcontrol/director.go b/pkg/epp/requestcontrol/director.go
index 65232be..d2073eb 100644
--- a/pkg/epp/requestcontrol/director.go
+++ b/pkg/epp/requestcontrol/director.go
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ func (d *Director) HandleRequest(ctx context.Context, reqCtx *handlers.RequestCo
 	logger.V(logutil.DEBUG).Info("LLM request assembled")
 
 	// --- 2. Admission Control check --
-	if err := d.admitRequest(ctx, requestCriticality); err != nil {
+	if err := d.admitRequest(ctx, requestCriticality, reqCtx.FairnessID); err != nil {
 		return reqCtx, err
 	}
 
@@ -166,9 +166,11 @@ func (d *Director) HandleRequest(ctx context.Context, reqCtx *handlers.RequestCo
 
 // admitRequest handles admission control to decide whether or not to accept the request
 // based on the request criticality and system saturation state.
-func (d *Director) admitRequest(ctx context.Context, requestCriticality v1alpha2.Criticality) error {
+func (d *Director) admitRequest(ctx context.Context, requestCriticality v1alpha2.Criticality, fairnessID string) error {
 	logger := log.FromContext(ctx)
 
+	logger.V(logutil.TRACE).Info("Entering Flow Control", "criticality", requestCriticality, "fairnessID", fairnessID)
+
 	if requestCriticality == v1alpha2.Critical {
 		logger.V(logutil.DEBUG).Info("Critical request bypassing saturation check.")
 		return nil
diff --git a/pkg/epp/server/runserver.go b/pkg/epp/server/runserver.go
index 5005323..2cbcbec 100644
--- a/pkg/epp/server/runserver.go
+++ b/pkg/epp/server/runserver.go
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ type ExtProcServerRunner struct {
 	GrpcPort                                 int
 	DestinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace string
 	DestinationEndpointHintKey               string
+	FairnessIDHeaderKey                      string
 	PoolNamespacedName                       types.NamespacedName
 	Datastore                                datastore.Datastore
 	SecureServing                            bool
@@ -63,24 +64,25 @@ type ExtProcServerRunner struct {
 
 // Default values for CLI flags in main
 const (
-	DefaultGrpcPort                                 = 9002                             // default for --grpc-port
-	DefaultGrpcHealthPort                           = 9003                             // default for --grpc-health-port
-	DefaultMetricsPort                              = 9090                             // default for --metrics-port
-	DefaultDestinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace = "envoy.lb"                       // default for --destinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace
-	DefaultDestinationEndpointHintKey               = "x-gateway-destination-endpoint" // default for --destination-endpoint-hint-key
-	DefaultPoolName                                 = ""                               // required but no default
-	DefaultPoolNamespace                            = "default"                        // default for --pool-namespace
-	DefaultRefreshMetricsInterval                   = 50 * time.Millisecond            // default for --refresh-metrics-interval
-	DefaultRefreshPrometheusMetricsInterval         = 5 * time.Second                  // default for --refresh-prometheus-metrics-interval
-	DefaultSecureServing                            = true                             // default for --secure-serving
-	DefaultHealthChecking                           = false                            // default for --health-checking
-	DefaultEnablePprof                              = true                             // default for --enable-pprof
-	DefaultTotalQueuedRequestsMetric                = "vllm:num_requests_waiting"      // default for --total-queued-requests-metric
-	DefaultKvCacheUsagePercentageMetric             = "vllm:gpu_cache_usage_perc"      // default for --kv-cache-usage-percentage-metric
-	DefaultLoraInfoMetric                           = "vllm:lora_requests_info"        // default for --lora-info-metric
-	DefaultCertPath                                 = ""                               // default for --cert-path
-	DefaultConfigFile                               = ""                               // default for --config-file
-	DefaultConfigText                               = ""                               // default for --config-text
+	DefaultGrpcPort                                 = 9002                              // default for --grpc-port
+	DefaultGrpcHealthPort                           = 9003                              // default for --grpc-health-port
+	DefaultMetricsPort                              = 9090                              // default for --metrics-port
+	DefaultDestinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace = "envoy.lb"                        // default for --destinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace
+	DefaultDestinationEndpointHintKey               = "x-gateway-destination-endpoint"  // default for --destination-endpoint-hint-key
+	DefaultFairnessIDHeaderKey                      = "x-gateway-inference-fairness-id" // default for --fairness-id-header-key
+	DefaultPoolName                                 = ""                                // required but no default
+	DefaultPoolNamespace                            = "default"                         // default for --pool-namespace
+	DefaultRefreshMetricsInterval                   = 50 * time.Millisecond             // default for --refresh-metrics-interval
+	DefaultRefreshPrometheusMetricsInterval         = 5 * time.Second                   // default for --refresh-prometheus-metrics-interval
+	DefaultSecureServing                            = true                              // default for --secure-serving
+	DefaultHealthChecking                           = false                             // default for --health-checking
+	DefaultEnablePprof                              = true                              // default for --enable-pprof
+	DefaultTotalQueuedRequestsMetric                = "vllm:num_requests_waiting"       // default for --total-queued-requests-metric
+	DefaultKvCacheUsagePercentageMetric             = "vllm:gpu_cache_usage_perc"       // default for --kv-cache-usage-percentage-metric
+	DefaultLoraInfoMetric                           = "vllm:lora_requests_info"         // default for --lora-info-metric
+	DefaultCertPath                                 = ""                                // default for --cert-path
+	DefaultConfigFile                               = ""                                // default for --config-file
+	DefaultConfigText                               = ""                                // default for --config-text
 	DefaultMetricsStalenessThreshold                = 2 * time.Second
 )
 
@@ -91,6 +93,7 @@ func NewDefaultExtProcServerRunner() *ExtProcServerRunner {
 		GrpcPort:                                 DefaultGrpcPort,
 		DestinationEndpointHintKey:               DefaultDestinationEndpointHintKey,
 		DestinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace: DefaultDestinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace,
+		FairnessIDHeaderKey:                      DefaultFairnessIDHeaderKey,
 		PoolNamespacedName:                       types.NamespacedName{Name: DefaultPoolName, Namespace: DefaultPoolNamespace},
 		SecureServing:                            DefaultSecureServing,
 		HealthChecking:                           DefaultHealthChecking,
@@ -159,6 +162,7 @@ func (r *ExtProcServerRunner) AsRunnable(logger logr.Logger) manager.Runnable {
 		extProcServer := handlers.NewStreamingServer(
 			r.DestinationEndpointHintMetadataNamespace,
 			r.DestinationEndpointHintKey,
+			r.FairnessIDHeaderKey,
 			r.Datastore,
 			r.Director,
 		)
diff --git a/site-src/guides/index.md b/site-src/guides/index.md
index 884e497..a1b10ed 100644
--- a/site-src/guides/index.md
+++ b/site-src/guides/index.md
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ This quickstart guide is intended for engineers familiar with k8s and model serv
    Deploy the sample InferenceModel which is configured to forward traffic to the `food-review-1` [LoRA adapter](https://docs.vllm.ai/en/latest/features/lora.html) of the sample model server.
 
    ```bash
-   kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api-inference-extension/raw/main/config/manifests/inferencemodel.yaml
+   kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api-inference-extension/raw/main/config/manifests/inferenceobjective.yaml
    ```
 
 ### Deploy the InferencePool and Endpoint Picker Extension
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ This quickstart guide is intended for engineers familiar with k8s and model serv
 
       ```bash
       kubectl delete -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api-inference-extension/raw/main/config/manifests/inferencepool-resources.yaml --ignore-not-found
-      kubectl delete -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api-inference-extension/raw/main/config/manifests/inferencemodel.yaml --ignore-not-found
+      kubectl delete -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api-inference-extension/raw/main/config/manifests/inferenceobjective.yaml --ignore-not-found
       kubectl delete -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api-inference-extension/raw/main/config/manifests/vllm/cpu-deployment.yaml --ignore-not-found
       kubectl delete -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api-inference-extension/raw/main/config/manifests/vllm/gpu-deployment.yaml --ignore-not-found
       kubectl delete secret hf-token --ignore-not-found
diff --git a/site-src/performance/regression-testing/index.md b/site-src/performance/regression-testing/index.md
index 83e7a3b..e4974c1 100644
--- a/site-src/performance/regression-testing/index.md
+++ b/site-src/performance/regression-testing/index.md
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ Optionally, you can also run benchmarks against the `ShareGPT` dataset for addit
 
 Update deployments for multi-LoRA support:  
 - vLLM Deployment: `./config/manifests/regression-testing/vllm/multi-lora-deployment.yaml`  
-- InferenceModel: `./config/manifests/inferencemodel.yaml`
+- InferenceObjective.yaml: `./config/manifests/inferenceobjective.yaml.yaml`
 
 Refer to example manifest:  
 `./config/manifests/regression-testing/multi-lora-regression.yaml`



Test patch:
diff --git a/pkg/epp/handlers/request_test.go b/pkg/epp/handlers/request_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..796082c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/epp/handlers/request_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2025 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package handlers
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"testing"
+
+	configPb "github.com/envoyproxy/go-control-plane/envoy/config/core/v3"
+	extProcPb "github.com/envoyproxy/go-control-plane/envoy/service/ext_proc/v3"
+)
+
+func TestHandleRequestHeaders(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	// Setup a mock server and request context
+	server := &StreamingServer{
+		fairnessIDHeaderKey: "test-fairness-id",
+	}
+
+	reqCtx := &RequestContext{
+		Request: &Request{
+			Headers: make(map[string]string),
+		},
+	}
+
+	req := &extProcPb.ProcessingRequest_RequestHeaders{
+		RequestHeaders: &extProcPb.HttpHeaders{
+			Headers: &configPb.HeaderMap{
+				Headers: []*configPb.HeaderValue{
+					{
+						Key:   "x-test-header",
+						Value: "test-value",
+					},
+					{
+						Key:   "test-fairness-id",
+						Value: "test-fairness-id-value",
+					},
+				},
+			},
+			EndOfStream: false,
+		},
+	}
+
+	err := server.HandleRequestHeaders(context.Background(), reqCtx, req)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("expected no error, got %v", err)
+	}
+
+	if reqCtx.FairnessID != "test-fairness-id-value" {
+		t.Errorf("expected fairness ID to be 'test-fairness-id-value', got %s", reqCtx.FairnessID)
+	}
+	if reqCtx.Request.Headers["test-fairness-id"] == "test-fairness-id-value" {
+		t.Errorf("expected fairness ID header to be removed from request headers, but it was not")
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/epp/server/server_test.go b/pkg/epp/server/server_test.go
index de93430..fc075de 100644
--- a/pkg/epp/server/server_test.go
+++ b/pkg/epp/server/server_test.go
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ const (
 	podAddress                 = "1.2.3.4"
 	poolPort                   = int32(5678)
 	destinationEndpointHintKey = "test-target"
+	fairnessIDHeaderKey        = "x-fairness-id"
 	namespace                  = "ns1"
 )
 
@@ -60,14 +61,18 @@ func TestServer(t *testing.T) {
 		ctx, cancel, ds, _ := utils.PrepareForTestStreamingServer([]*v1alpha2.InferenceObjective{model},
 			[]*v1.Pod{{ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{Name: podName}}}, "test-pool1", namespace, poolPort)
 
-		streamingServer := handlers.NewStreamingServer(namespace, destinationEndpointHintKey, ds, director)
+		streamingServer := handlers.NewStreamingServer(namespace, destinationEndpointHintKey, fairnessIDHeaderKey, ds, director)
 
 		testListener, errChan := utils.SetupTestStreamingServer(t, ctx, ds, streamingServer)
 		process, conn := utils.GetStreamingServerClient(ctx, t)
 		defer conn.Close()
 
 		// Send request headers - no response expected
-		headers := utils.BuildEnvoyGRPCHeaders(map[string]string{requestHeader: theHeaderValue, ":method": "POST"}, true)
+		headers := utils.BuildEnvoyGRPCHeaders(map[string]string{
+			requestHeader:       theHeaderValue,
+			":method":           "POST",
+			fairnessIDHeaderKey: "a-very-interesting-fairness-id",
+		}, true)
 		request := &pb.ProcessingRequest{
 			Request: &pb.ProcessingRequest_RequestHeaders{
 				RequestHeaders: headers,