Kong has released Kong Gateway Operator 1.4, which allows users to manage Konnect configurations declaratively within Kubernetes clusters through Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs). This new feature facilitates the management of Konnect entities using familiar Kubernetes resources such as KongConsumer and KongPlugin. The approach involves defining CRDs for each Konnect entity type and organizing them under a new API group, konnect.konghq.com, while maintaining backward compatibility with existing KIC CRDs. The operator uses a control loop to synchronize desired and observed states of Konnect entities, relying on the Konnect API as the authoritative source in case of conflicts. The implementation leverages Go's generics to create a flexible, type-agnostic system, although it faces limitations due to the lack of generics specialization. The update aims to streamline the process of managing cloud-based and self-hosted configurations without requiring users to manage additional CRDs.