Control plane

This section covers how Conduit loads configuration, how you change it on a running process, and how conduitctl talks to the optional gRPC API.

Read in order:

1. Configuration model — file layer, overlay, effective config, and runtime snapshot
2. Overlay merge strategy — section replace vs deep merge (metrics, pools)
3. Config file — YAML on disk, path resolution, validation
4. Reload and export — when to reload, apply, or export; apply modes; common workflows
5. gRPC and conduitctl — how to connect, authenticate, and run each CLI command or RPC (apply, export, reload, trace, health, …)

Reference (field lists and proto detail):

• Reference: control — control: block in config
• Reference: gRPC and CLI — RPC messages and enum values

Related: Backend health and conduitctl health for per-backend freeze/drain; Security — API keys, Security — mTLS when the control listener uses TLS.