Operant AI API Threat Protection is a Kubernetes-native API security platform that provides runtime protection for APIs across internal and external environments. The platform operates without requiring instrumentation or integrations and deploys via a single Helm install. The solution automatically discovers and catalogs all APIs across development, staging, and production environments, including legacy, internal, and third-party APIs. It provides vulnerability scanning capabilities and generates visual API graphs showing attack paths and risk contexts. The platform offers inline threat protection that extends beyond traditional WAF capabilities. It includes protocol-specific authentication and authorization controls, traffic rate limiting, and API-to-API microsegmentation within Kubernetes environments. The system detects and defends against OWASP API Top 10 risks including broken object level authorization, broken authentication, unrestricted resource consumption, broken function level authorization, unrestricted access to sensitive business flows, server-side request forgery, security misconfiguration, improper inventory management, and unsafe consumption of APIs. The platform provides real-time insights on vulnerabilities and prioritizes runtime risks. It enables security policy enforcement across the entire API stack without configuration drift. The solution is designed to operate within the application environment itself rather than relying on VPC mirroring or external traffic analysis.