Terminating gateways handle requests from services in the network for external services running on external nodes. They act as service mesh proxies that can services in the Consul catalog. These gateways terminate service mesh mTLS connections, enforce service intentions, and forward requests to the appropriate destination.

Terminating gateways are deprecated. Use [Consul API gateways](/north-south/api-gateway) instead.

Refer to [Terminating gateways](/consul/docs/north-south/terminating-gateway) for more information about how to deploy terminating gateways to your Consul service mesh.