HTTP Client (http/client)

The http/client module provides everything needed for making outbound HTTP requests—from simple one-liners to fully custom requests with authentication, headers, and arbitrary bodies.

All client operations utilize Vex's native TCP socket layer (net/socket) and are fully non-blocking when used inside async contexts.

Quick Convenience Functions

For common HTTP verbs, Vex provides instant helpers that handle connection setup, request serialization, response parsing, and socket teardown in a single call:

import { httpGet, httpPost, httpPostJSON, httpPatch, httpDelete } from "http";

// GET
let res = httpGet("api.github.com", 443, "/repos/vex-lang/vex");
if res.ok() {
    println("Stars: {res.body}");
}

// POST with raw body
let res = httpPost("api.example.com", 8080, "/submit", "name=Vex&type=lang");

// POST with JSON body (auto Content-Type: application/json)
let res = httpPostJSON("api.example.com", 8080, "/users", "{\"name\":\"Vex\"}");

// PATCH
let res = httpPatch("api.example.com", 8080, "/users/1", "{\"active\":true}");

// DELETE
let res = httpDelete("api.example.com", 8080, "/users/99");

Builder Pattern (ClientRequest)

For full control, construct a ClientRequest manually. Every setter returns &ClientRequest!, enabling clean chaining:

import { ClientRequest } from "http";

let! req = ClientRequest.new("PUT", "api.internal.io", 8080, "/sync/worker-1");

req.setHeader("Authorization", "Bearer sk_live_abc123")
   .setHeader("X-Request-ID", "trace-001A")
   .setHeader("Accept", "application/json")
   .setContentType("application/json")
   .setBody("{\"status\":\"active\",\"region\":\"eu-west-1\"}");

let res = req.send();

println("Status: {res.status} {res.statusText}");
println("Server: {res.header(\"Server\")}");
println("Body: {res.body}");

ClientRequest API

Method	Description
ClientRequest.new(method, host, port, path)	Create a new request builder.
.setHeader(name, value): &Self!	Set a custom header (chainable).
.setContentType(ct): &Self!	Shortcut for Content-Type header (chainable).
.setBody(body): &Self!	Set the request body string (chainable).
.send(): ClientResponse	Execute the HTTP request and return the parsed response.

ClientRequest Fields

Field	Type	Description
method	string	HTTP verb (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH).
host	string	Target hostname.
port	i32	Target port.
path	string	Request path (e.g. /api/v2/users).
headers	Headers	The full header collection.
body	string	Request body (empty for GET/DELETE).
timeout	i32	Read timeout in milliseconds (0 = default).

ClientResponse — Parsed Response

When send() executes, Vex reads up to 64KB from the socket and parses the HTTP response line, headers, and body using a zero-copy byte scanner.

Properties

Field	Type	Description
status	i32	HTTP status code (e.g. 200, 404, 500).
statusText	string	Status reason phrase ("OK", "Not Found").
version	string	Protocol version ("HTTP/1.1").
headers	Headers	All response headers.
body	string	The response body payload.
valid	bool	true if the response was successfully parsed.

Helper Methods

Method	Description
res.ok(): bool	Returns true if status is in the 2xx range.
res.header(name): string	Read a specific response header (case-insensitive).
res.hasHeader(name): bool	Check if a response header exists.
res.isJSON(): bool	Check if Content-Type is application/json.

Response Header Parsing

All response headers are automatically extracted during readResponse() using the same zero-copy byte scanner used by the server-side parser. Headers are stored in a Headers collection supporting:

let res = httpGet("example.com", 80, "/");

// Case-insensitive access
let server = res.header("Server");          // e.g. "VexHTTP/1.0"
let ctype  = res.header("content-type");    // case-insensitive matching
let length = res.header("Content-Length");   // "1234"

// Existence check
if res.hasHeader("X-RateLimit-Remaining") {
    println("Remaining: {res.header(\"X-RateLimit-Remaining\")}");
}