envoyproxy/envoy

Is application-cookie based session persistence supported?

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#39,288 opened on May 1, 2025

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area/stateful_sessionenhancementhelp wanted

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Description

Need to know if there is support for application cookie stickiness or session persistence.

I went through the documentation for session persistence, I see that there are two types of session persistence supported. Refer - https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/v1.34.0/api-v3/config/http/stateful_session

  1. Cookie based session persistence
  2. Header based session persistence

My requirement is to support session persistence only when the backend server sends a Set-Cookie in its response header. Only then the cookie should be set in the response and from then onwards, the session persistence should start. With current cookie-based session persistence, Envoy will add cookie from the first request itself. But it should add the cookie only when backend server sends a set-cookie in its response header.

Is this supported in Envoy?

Contributor guide

Research direction
Review Envoy's stateful session documentation and source code in source/common/http/stateful session/ to understand if there is a mechanism to delay cookie setting until backend returns Set Cookie. Check the existing cookie based session filter and see if it supports an application cookie mode.
Tech stack
cpp
Domain
backendnetworking
Issue type
Research
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
EnvoyHTTP
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70