What You'll Build

To explore the new integration, I'll build a realistic API platform workflow using Konnect, Kong Gateway, and Insomnia.

By the end of this tutorial, I'll have:

• A Konnect Control Plane (KongAir Dev)
• A local Kong Gateway Data Plane connected to Konnect
• A Gateway Service with multiple Routes
• API key authentication and consumer-based access control
• Gateway policies for rate limiting, request transformation, and maintenance handling
• An Insomnia collection synced directly from Konnect

I'll then use Insomnia to validate real-world API scenarios, including authentication, authorization, rate limiting, request transformations, and Gateway-generated responses.

Choose Your Starting Point

If you already have Gateway Services and Routes configured in Konnect, you can skip the local setup and jump directly to the Step 6 Connect Insomnia to Konnect section.

Prerequisites

To follow along, you'll need:

• [A Kong Konnect account*](https://developer.konghq.com/konnect/)A Kong Konnect account*
• [A Konnect Personal Access Token](https://developer.konghq.com/konnect-platform/authentication/)A Konnect Personal Access Token
• Docker
• [decK](https://developer.konghq.com/index/deck/)decK
• [Insomnia 13](https://konghq.com/download)Insomnia 13
• Insomnia Enterprise License

*Not a Kong Konnect user yet? No problem. Get started with a [Konnect Free Trial.](https://konghq.com/pricing)Konnect Free Trial.

Step 1: Start a clean Konnect Control Plane and local Data Plane

First, I’ll create a new Konnect Control Plane named KongAir Dev and connect a local Kong Gateway Data Plane to it.

Export your Konnect Personal Access Token:

export KONNECT_TOKEN='YOUR_KONNECT_PAT'

Now create the environment:

curl -Ls https://get.konghq.com/quickstart | bash -s -- \
  -k "$KONNECT_TOKEN" \
  -n "KongAir Dev" \
  -a kongair-dev \
  --deck-output

This creates the Control Plane in Konnect and starts a local Kong Gateway Data Plane. Next, set the environment variables I’ll use for the rest of the tutorial:

export DECK_KONNECT_TOKEN="$KONNECT_TOKEN"
export DECK_KONNECT_CONTROL_PLANE_NAME="KongAir Dev"
export DECK_KONNECT_ADDR="https://us.api.konghq.com"
export KONNECT_PROXY_URL="http://localhost:8000"

Then verify

echo "$DECK_KONNECT_CONTROL_PLANE_NAME"
echo "$DECK_KONNECT_ADDR"
echo "$KONNECT_PROXY_URL"
printf "Token length: %s\n" "${#DECK_KONNECT_TOKEN}"

KongAir Dev Control Plane

Step 2: Verify the setup

curl -i "$KONNECT_PROXY_URL"

At this stage, I expect a 404 response:

{
  "message": "no Route matched with those values"
}

That’s expected. Kong Gateway is running, but I haven’t configured any Routes yet. Next, I’ll verify that decK can connect to Konnect:

deck
 gateway ping \
  --konnect-token "$DECK_KONNECT_TOKEN" \
  --konnect-control-plane-name "$DECK_KONNECT_CONTROL_PLANE_NAME" \
  --konnect-addr "$DECK_KONNECT_ADDR"

Expected result:

Successfully connected to the organization.

Now the connection path is ready:

Step 3: Define the KongAir API in Konnect

Create a file named kongair-insomnia-demo.yaml:

The configuration defines one Gateway Service, seven Routes, Consumers, credentials, and Gateway policies.

Here’s a shortened excerpt:

```yaml
services:
  - name: kongair-api
    url: https://httpbin.konghq.com
    routes:
      - name: kongair-search-flights
        methods:
          - GET
        paths:
          - /anything/kongair/flights
        protocols:
          - http

plugins:
  - name: key-auth
    route: kongair-search-flights
    config:
      key_names:
        - apikey
```

The full decK configuration is available in this GitHub Gist: kongair-insomnia-demo.yaml.

Step 4: Apply the configuration

Apply the config:

deck gateway diff kongair-insomnia-demo.yaml \
  --konnect-token "$DECK_KONNECT_TOKEN" \
  --konnect-control-plane-name "$DECK_KONNECT_CONTROL_PLANE_NAME" \
  --konnect-addr "$DECK_KONNECT_ADDR"

Wait a few seconds for the Data Plane to receive the configuration:
![][Routes in Konnect](https://assets.prd.mktg.konghq.com/images/2026/06/6a396b63-image6-2.png)Routes in Konnect
Routes in Konnect

Step 5: Validate the Routes from curl

Before switching to Insomnia, I like to run one quick command to confirm that the Gateway configuration is active.

curl -i "$KONNECT_PROXY_URL/status/200"

Expected response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

That confirms the request is flowing through the local Kong Gateway Data Plane to the upstream service. At this point, the configuration is ready to sync into Insomnia.

![][Getaway sanity check](https://assets.prd.mktg.konghq.com/images/2026/06/6a396b88-image7-2.png)Getaway sanity check
Getaway sanity check

Step 6: Connect Insomnia to Konnect

Now that the API is working through Kong Gateway, I’ll sync the Konnect resources into Insomnia.

Insomnia<>Konnect

In Insomnia 13:

• Open Preferences.
• Open Konnect.
• Paste your Konnect Personal Access Token.
• Validate and save the token.
• Open your workspace.
• Go to the Konnect tab.
• Click Sync.

Insomnia imports the Konnect resources into the workspace and creates requests from the synced Routes.

Konnect configuration synced with Insomnia

Step 7: Configure the Insomnia environment

{
  "proxy_host": "localhost:8000",
  "dev_api_key": "kongair-dev-key",
  "admin_api_key": "kongair-admin-key",
  "request_id": "insomnia-blog-demo-001"
}

The synced requests use proxy_host to reach the local Gateway proxy. The API keys are stored as environment values so I don’t need to hardcode credentials in each request.

Manually updated Environment values

Note: Insomnia syncs Routes from Konnect, but authentication values such as app registrations, API keys, or tokens are not populated automatically yet. For this walkthrough, I added those values manually in the environment. These local additions are preserved across future syncs, so I can pull in new Konnect changes later without losing environment values, headers, or authentication details I added for testing.

Step 8: Test synced Routes in Insomnia

With the kongair-api Routes synced from Konnect and the environment values configured, I can now test the API directly from Insomnia. This is where the Konnect integration becomes especially useful: I’m not manually recreating requests or copying paths from the Gateway configuration. The Routes, methods, and request structure are already available in Insomnia, and I only need to add the environment-specific values such as the proxy host and API keys.

For testing, I’ll validate a few common Gateway scenarios: a public health check, a protected Route returning 401 without an API key, a successful request with the developer key, an admin-only Route returning 403 with the wrong key, a successful admin request, rate limiting, request transformation, and a Gateway-generated maintenance response.

These tests show how Insomnia can be used to debug real Kong Konnect-managed Gateway behavior, including routing, authentication, authorization, plugins, and policies, from one synced workspace.

Ready to connect your Kong Konnect to Insomnia?

If you're on an Insomnia Enterprise plan, [download Insomnia 13](http://insomnia.rest/download)download Insomnia 13 the Konnect integration is ready for you right now. Head to your organization settings, connect your Konnect account, and start pulling live specs into your workflow today.

A few resources to get you there:

• [Documentation](https://developer.konghq.com/insomnia/konnect-integration/)Documentation
• [Insomnia Enterprise](https://developer.konghq.com/insomnia/pricing)Insomnia Enterprise

Not on Kong Konnect yet either? You can learn more about [Kong Konnect](https://konghq.com/products/kong-konnect)Kong Konnect and how it serves as the source of truth for your API infrastructure.