The Edge Stack API Gateway chose Envoy as its core proxy due to its feature set, which is well-suited for a Layer 7 (L7) world where business logic is distributed across ephemeral microservices. Envoy was designed from the ground up for this L7, services-oriented world and has features such as hitless reloads, observability, resilience, and advanced load balancing. The Envoy community is unique, with no commercial pressure to create proprietary editions, allowing it to focus solely on building the best possible L7 proxy. Envoy's forward-thinking vision, rich feature set, and rapid pace of innovation have made it an ideal choice for Edge Stack API Gateway.