Worked on the kgateway-dev/kgateway repository to deliver two features enhancing legacy CRD compatibility and security. Developed a port injection mechanism for the XListenerSet CRD schema, ensuring legacy status validation by injecting valid ports with a sentinel fallback and comprehensive test coverage. Implemented HTTP external authentication improvements, enabling selected authorization response headers to be forwarded downstream by updating API definitions, CRD schemas, and traffic policy plugins to map headers to Envoy configuration. Focused on robust API design and backend development using Go, Kubernetes CRDs, and Envoy Proxy, with an emphasis on schema evolution, test-driven development, and CI reliability.