Hacktoberfest 2026: the issues maintainers tagged for October, open and beginner-friendly. Browse Hacktoberfest issues

Add HTTP Downstream Metadata API

Open
#61 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
35/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
python
Domain
api

Research direction

Start with stubs/wit_world/imports/http_downstream.py and compare its interface with the Request wrapper planned in issue #009. Review src/component/compute/http_downstream.rs and the Viceroy testing notes to separate supported metadata from stubbed TLS and fingerprint functions. Done means exposing the agreed downstream API and covering supported behavior, multi-request handling, and documented Viceroy limitations.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Overview

Add support for accessing downstream (incoming) HTTP request metadata, including client/server IP addresses, TLS connection details, security fingerprints, and compliance information.

Relationship to Issue #009: Issue #009 covers the low-level Request/Response wrappers. This issue (#014) specifically focuses on implementing the downstream metadata functions from the http-downstream WIT interface. These functions take a Request and return metadata, and will likely be exposed via a request.downstream accessor as shown in #009's examples.

WIT Interface

interface http-downstream {
  use http-req.{request, client-cert-verify-result};
  use types.{ip-address, error};
  use http-body.body;
  use async-io.pollable;

  // Multi-request handling
  next-request: func(options: next-request-options) -> result<pending-request, error>;
  await-request: func(pending: pending-request) -> result<option<tuple<request, body>>, error>;

  // IP addresses
  downstream-client-ip-addr: func(ds-request: request) -> option<ip-address>;
  downstream-server-ip-addr: func(ds-request: request) -> option<ip-address>;

  // TLS metadata
  downstream-tls-cipher-openssl-name: func(ds-request: request, max-len: u64) -> result<option<list<u8>>, error>;
  downstream-tls-protocol: func(ds-request: request, max-len: u64) -> result<option<list<u8>>, error>;
  downstream-tls-client-hello: func(ds-request: request, max-len: u64) -> result<option<list<u8>>, error>;
  downstream-tls-raw-client-certificate: func(ds-request: request, max-len: u64) -> result<option<list<u8>>, error>;
  downstream-tls-client-cert-verify-result: func(ds-request: request) -> result<option<client-cert-verify-result>, error>;
  downstream-tls-client-servername: func(ds-request: request, max-len: u64) -> result<option<string>, error>;
  downstream-tls-ja3-md5: func(ds-request: request) -> result<option<list<u8>>, error>;
  downstream-tls-ja4: func(ds-request: request, max-len: u64) -> result<option<string>, error>;

  // Security and fingerprinting
  downstream-client-h2-fingerprint: func(ds-request: request, max-len: u64) -> result<string, error>;
  downstream-client-oh-fingerprint: func(ds-request: request, max-len: u64) -> result<string, error>;
  downstream-client-ddos-detected: func(ds-request: request) -> result<bool, error>;
  downstream-client-request-id: func(ds-request: request, max-len: u64) -> result<string, error>;

  // Compliance and headers
  downstream-compliance-region: func(ds-request: request, max-len: u64) -> result<option<string>, error>;
  downstream-original-header-names: func(ds-request: request, max-len: u64, cursor: u32) -> result<tuple<string, option<u32>>, error>;
  downstream-original-header-count: func(ds-request: request) -> result<u32, error>;

  // Purge authentication
  fastly-key-is-valid: func(ds-request: request) -> result<bool, error>;
}

WIT bindings: stubs/wit_world/imports/http_downstream.py

API Design

Functions that take a Request and return metadata (likely exposed via request.downstream accessor):

  • IP Access: get_client_ip(request) / get_server_ip(request) returning Optional[Union[IPv4Address, IPv6Address]]
  • TLS Info: get_tls_cipher(request), get_tls_protocol(request), get_tls_ja3_md5(request), get_tls_ja4(request)
  • Client Certificates: get_client_certificate(request), get_client_cert_verify_result(request)
  • Security: is_ddos_detected(request), get_request_id(request), get_h2_fingerprint(request)
  • Compliance: get_compliance_region(request) for GDPR/data residency
  • Headers: get_original_headers(request) preserving case and order
  • Multi-request: next_request(timeout_ms) / await_request(pending) for handling multiple requests per sandbox

Usage via Request wrapper (see issue #009):

client_ip = incoming_req.downstream.client_ip()
tls_ja3 = incoming_req.downstream.tls_ja3_md5()

Cross-SDK Comparison: Rust exposes these as methods on Request extensions, Go uses functions in fsthttp package, JS provides via event.client object. Python will likely expose via request.downstream namespace for clean API.

Viceroy Testing

Viceroy implementation status (src/component/compute/http_downstream.rs):

✅ Fully Supported:

  • downstream_client_ip_addr - Returns client IP from request context
  • downstream_server_ip_addr - Returns server IP from request context
  • downstream_original_header_names / downstream_original_header_count - Preserves original header casing/order
  • downstream_client_request_id - Returns generated request ID (format: 32-char hex)
  • downstream_compliance_region - Returns compliance region if configured
  • next_request / await_request - Multi-request handling works

⚠️ Stubbed (returns None/empty):

  • All downstream_tls_* functions - Return None (no TLS metadata in local testing)
  • downstream_client_h2_fingerprint - Returns empty string
  • downstream_client_oh_fingerprint - Returns empty string
  • downstream_client_ddos_detected - Always returns false
  • fastly_key_is_valid - Always returns false

Testing Approach:

  • Use @on_viceroy with inline TOML for IP address configuration
  • Mark TLS/fingerprint tests as xfail - they return None in Viceroy
  • Test multi-request handling with sequential request pattern
  • Test original header preservation with mixed-case headers

Example test config:

[local_server]
client_ip = "203.0.113.42"
compliance_region = "EU"

Reference

Dominant language
Python
Stars
5
Forks
1
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

More from fastly/compute-sdk-python

All issues in fastly/compute-sdk-python

Similar issues

More Python issues

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.