GatewayClass ACCEPTED status shows "Unknown" after installing Contour with Gateway API

[patsevanton]

What steps did you take and what happened:
I installed Contour using Helm with Gateway API enabled:

helm repo add contour https://projectcontour.github.io/helm-charts/
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install contour contour/contour --namespace contour --wait --create-namespace -f contour-values.yaml

contour-values.yaml:

contour:
  service:
    loadBalancerIP: 158.160.0.255
gatewayAPI:
  manageCRDs: true

Then I applied a GatewayClass manifest:

apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: GatewayClass
metadata:
  name: contour
spec:
  controllerName: projectcontour.io/gateway-controller

kubectl apply -f gateway.yaml

After that, I checked the status:

kubectl get gatewayclass
NAME      CONTROLLER                             ACCEPTED   AGE
contour   projectcontour.io/gateway-controller   Unknown    25s

What did you expect to happen:
I expected the ACCEPTED column to show True, indicating that the GatewayClass is recognized and managed by the Contour Gateway API controller.

Anything else you would like to add:
It seems the controller is not marking the GatewayClass as accepted, but I’m not sure whether it’s a configuration issue or a bug.

Environment:

• Contour version: (run helm list -n contour to check)

NAME   	NAMESPACE	REVISION	UPDATED                                	STATUS  	CHART        	APP VERSION
contour	contour  	1       	2025-11-30 13:34:27.258875714 +0600 +06	deployed	contour-0.2.0	1.33.0

• Kubernetes version: (run kubectl version)

kubectl version
Client Version: v1.34.1
Kustomize Version: v5.7.1
Server Version: v1.33.3

• Kubernetes installer & version: v1.33.3
• Cloud provider or hardware configuration: Cloud provider

Commands to gather debug information:

Check Contour pods

kubectl get pods -n contour

NAME                               READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
contour-contour-79f8b6fff4-9xr2r   1/1     Running   0          8m46s
contour-envoy-7hnqt                2/2     Running   0          8m47s
contour-envoy-cx6vc                2/2     Running   0          8m46s
contour-envoy-wgk5z                2/2     Running   0          8m46s

Check logs of the Contour Gateway API controller

kubectl logs -n contour deploy/contour-contour -c contour

time="2025-11-30T07:34:48Z" level=info msg="maxprocs: Updating GOMAXPROCS=1: using minimum allowed GOMAXPROCS"
time="2025-11-30T07:34:48Z" level=info msg="args: [serve --incluster --xds-address=0.0.0.0 --xds-port=8001 --http-port=8000 --envoy-service-http-port=8080 --envoy-service-https-port=8443 --contour-cafile=/certs/ca.crt --contour-cert-file=/certs/tls.crt --contour-key-file=/certs/tls.key --config-path=/config/contour.yaml --envoy-service-namespace=contour --envoy-service-name=contour-envoy --leader-election-resource-name=contour-contour-contour --log-format=text --kubernetes-debug=0]"
time="2025-11-30T07:34:49Z" level=info msg="started event handler" context=contourEventHandler
time="2025-11-30T07:34:49Z" level=info msg="started HTTP server" address="127.0.0.1:6060" context=debugsvc
time="2025-11-30T07:34:49Z" level=info msg="started HTTP server" address="0.0.0.0:8000" context=metricsvc
time="2025-11-30T07:34:49Z" level=info msg="waiting for the initial dag to be built" context=xds
time="2025-11-30T07:34:49Z" level=info msg="attempting to acquire leader lease contour/contour-contour-contour..." caller="leaderelection.go:257" context=kubernetes
time="2025-11-30T07:34:49Z" level=info msg="successfully acquired lease contour/contour-contour-contour" caller="leaderelection.go:271" context=kubernetes
time="2025-11-30T07:34:49Z" level=info msg="started status update handler" context=StatusUpdateHandler
time="2025-11-30T07:34:49Z" level=info msg="received a new address for status.loadBalancer" context=loadBalancerStatusWriter loadbalancer-address=
time="2025-11-30T07:34:49Z" level=info msg="the initial dag is built" context=xds
time="2025-11-30T07:34:49Z" level=info msg="started xDS server" address="0.0.0.0:8001" context=xds
time="2025-11-30T07:34:49Z" level=info msg="performing delayed update" context=contourEventHandler last_update=121.48634ms outstanding=3
time="2025-11-30T07:34:52Z" level=info msg="received a new address for status.loadBalancer" context=loadBalancerStatusWriter loadbalancer-address=158.160.142.188

Check GatewayClass details

kubectl describe gatewayclass contour

kubectl describe gatewayclass contour
Name:         contour
Namespace:    
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
Kind:         GatewayClass
Metadata:
  Creation Timestamp:  2025-11-30T07:35:40Z
  Generation:          1
  Resource Version:    18226
  UID:                 1441c95d-9557-4388-b356-776dde6a1902
Spec:
  Controller Name:  projectcontour.io/gateway-controller
Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  1970-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Message:               Waiting for controller
    Reason:                Pending
    Status:                Unknown
    Type:                  Accepted
Events:                    <none>

Check if CRDs are created

kubectl get crds | grep gateway

kubectl get crds | grep gateway
backendtlspolicies.gateway.networking.k8s.io          2025-11-30T07:34:44Z
gatewayclasses.gateway.networking.k8s.io              2025-11-30T07:34:44Z
gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io                    2025-11-30T07:34:44Z
grpcroutes.gateway.networking.k8s.io                  2025-11-30T07:34:44Z
httproutes.gateway.networking.k8s.io                  2025-11-30T07:34:44Z
referencegrants.gateway.networking.k8s.io             2025-11-30T07:34:44Z
tcproutes.gateway.networking.k8s.io                   2025-11-30T07:34:44Z
tlsroutes.gateway.networking.k8s.io                   2025-11-30T07:34:44Z
udproutes.gateway.networking.k8s.io                   2025-11-30T07:34:44Z
xbackendtrafficpolicies.gateway.networking.x-k8s.io   2025-11-30T07:34:44Z
xlistenersets.gateway.networking.x-k8s.io             2025-11-30T07:34:44Z

[github-actions]

Hey @patsevanton! Thanks for opening your first issue. We appreciate your contribution and welcome you to our community! We are glad to have you here and to have your input on Contour. You can also join us on our mailing list and in our channel in the Kubernetes Slack Workspace

[marcportabellaclotet-mt]

Were you able to solve the issue? I am facing the same behavior, and gatewayclass is in unknown state

[patsevanton]

Were you able to solve the issue? I am facing the same behavior, and gatewayclass is in unknown state

no