> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://glide.einstack.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> Welcome to the Glide's documentation - The Cloud Native LLM Gateway

<img className="w-full" src="https://mintlify.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/backlandlabs/images/glide_intro.png" alt="Welcome to Glide" />

## 🐦 What is Glide?

Glide is a lightweight blazing-fast cloud-native [open-source](https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-source) LLM gateway, delivering high-performance LLMOps in one single binary.
Glide provides a simplified way to build application resilience, reduce latency, and manage API keys among many other features.

<img className="w-full" src="https://mintlify.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/backlandlabs/images/marketecture.svg" alt="The Glide's Architecture" />

<Warning>
  Glide is currently under development and the docs are updated frequently.
</Warning>

## Why Glide?

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="The True Gateway" icon="wand-magic-sparkles">
    Focus on **your business logic** and application while letting Glide handle common LLMOps problems (like fallbacks, cost control, routing, caching, etc.)
  </Card>

  <Card title="Blazing-Fast & Cloud-Native" icon="bolt">
    High performance and scalability are our priority, so we don't slow you down and scale out as you grow.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Resilient" icon="scale-balanced">
    Glide is designed around resiliency and failures,
    so your application can achieve **high availability** working with external models and **survive** the toughest real-world situations.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Configurable" icon="puzzle-piece">
    A Glide cluster can serve multiple applications with totally different needs.
  </Card>

  <Card title="No Vendor Lock-Ins" icon="plug">
    Switch your model providers seamlessly for your application without a need to modify them.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Open Source" icon="people-group">
    We welcome all kinds of feedback and contributions in Glide. Let's make it work in the best possible way for you!
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Features

* **Unified API**: Change your model providers without a need to modify your applications
* **High Performance**: Written in [Golang](https://go.dev/) with the best practices of software development in a cloud-native environments in mind
* Flexible **routing** across several models and various strategies like [the least latency](/essentials/routers#least-latency-router), [weighted round-robin](http://localhost:3000/essentials/routers#weighted-round-robin-router), [round-robin](http://localhost:3000/essentials/routers#round-robin-router), [priority-based routing](/essentials/routers#priority-router). All strategies include **low-latency fallback mechanisms** to ensure resiliency
* Support [Popular LLM providers](/essentials/providers)
* **Centralized** configuration and API key management
* **Production-ready Observability**: Always know what's going on with the heart of your system via logs, metrics, and traces. [OpenTelemetry](https://opentelemetry.io/) is natively supported (coming soon).
* and [much more is coming](https://github.com/EinStack/glide/blob/develop/ROADMAP.md)

## Installation

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card href="/get-started/docker-installation/" title="Docker" icon="docker" color="#0078d3">
    Get started with Glide in a few minutes with Docker (recommended)
  </Card>

  <Card href="/get-started/local-installation/" title="Command Line Interface (CLI)" icon="square-terminal" color="#3775a9">
    Install Glide locally into your developer machine or bare metal setup via CLI (MacOS, Linux)
  </Card>

  <Card href="/get-started/kubernetes-installation/" title="Kubernetes" icon="cloud" color="#0078d3">
    Install Glide into a Kubernetes cluster
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## License

Glide is provided under [Apache 2.0](https://github.com/EinStack/glide/blob/develop/LICENSE) open source license.

Developed with ❤️ by [Roma](https://github.com/roma-glushko), [Max](https://github.com/mkrueger12), and the rest of [the EinStack Community](https://github.com/EinStack).