Documentation
Traffic management
Header control
Request headers

Request headers

Use the RequestHeaderModifier filter to add, append, overwrite, or remove request headers for a specific route.

For more information, see the HTTPHeaderFilter specification.

Before you begin

  1. Follow the Get started guide to install kgateway.

  2. Follow the Sample app guide to create an API gateway proxy with an HTTP listener and deploy the httpbin sample app.

  3. Get the external address of the gateway and save it in an environment variable. 

    export INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS=$(kubectl get svc -n kgateway-system http -o jsonpath="{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0]['hostname','ip']}")
echo $INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS  
    kubectl port-forward deployment/http -n kgateway-system 8080:8080

Add and append request headers

Add headers to incoming requests before they are forwarded to an upstream service. If the request already has the header set, the value of the header in the RequestHeaderModifier filter is appended to the value of the header in the request.

  1. Create an HTTPRoute resource for the httpbin app with a RequestHeaderModifier. In this example, you want to add the my-header: kgateway request header.

    kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: httpbin-headers
  namespace: httpbin
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: http
    namespace: kgateway-system
  hostnames:
    - headers.example
  rules:
    - filters:
        - type: RequestHeaderModifier
          requestHeaderModifier:
            add: 
            - name: my-header
              value: kgateway
      backendRefs:
        - name: httpbin
          port: 8000
EOF
    Setting Description
    spec.parentRefs The name and namespace of the gateway that serves this HTTPRoute. In this example, you use the http gateway that was created as part of the get started guide.
    spec.rules.filters.type The type of filter that you want to apply to incoming requests. In this example, the RequestHeaderModifier filter is used.
    spec.rules.filters.requestHeaderModifier.add The name and value of the request header that you want to add.
    spec.rules.backendRefs The backend destination you want to forward traffic to. In this example, all traffic is forwarded to the httpbin app that you set up as part of the get started guide.

  2. Send a request to the httpbin app on the headers.example domain and verify that you get back a 200 HTTP response code and that you see the my-header request header. 

    curl -vi http://$INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS:8080/headers -H "host: headers.example:8080"
    curl -vi localhost:8080/headers -H "host: headers.example"

    Example output:

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    * Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
{
  "headers": {
    "Accept": [
      "*/*"
   ],
    "Host": [
      "headers.example:8080"
    ],
    "My-Header": [
      "kgateway"
    ],
   "User-Agent": [
      "curl/7.77.0"
    ],
...

  3. Send another request to the httpbin app. This time, you already include the my-header header in your request. Verify that you get back a 200 HTTP response code and that your my-header header value is appended with the value from the RequestHeaderModifier filter. 

    curl -vi http://$INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS:8080/headers -H "host: headers.example:8080" \
-H "my-header: foo"
    curl -vi localhost:8080/headers -H "host: headers.example" \
-H "my-header: foo"

    Example output:

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    * Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
{
  "headers": {
     "Accept": [
      "*/*"
    ],
    "Host": [
      "headers.example:8080"
    ],
    "My-Header": [
      "foo",
      "kgateway"
    ],
...

  4. Optional: Remove the resources that you created.

    kubectl delete httproute httpbin-headers -n httpbin

Set request headers

Setting headers is similar to adding headers. If the request does not include the header, it is added by the RequestHeaderModifier filter. However, if the request already contains the header, its value is overwritten with the value from the RequestHeaderModifier filter.

  1. Create an HTTPRoute resource for the httpbin app with an RequestHeaderModifier. In this example, you want to set the my-header request header to the value kgateway.

    kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: httpbin-headers
  namespace: httpbin
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: http
    namespace: kgateway-system
  hostnames:
    - headers.example
  rules:
    - filters:
        - type: RequestHeaderModifier
          requestHeaderModifier:
            set: 
            - name: my-header
              value: kgateway
      backendRefs:
        - name: httpbin
          port: 8000
EOF
    Setting Description
    spec.parentRefs The name and namespace of the gateway that serves this HTTPRoute. In this example, you use the http gateway that was created as part of the get started guide.
    spec.rules.filters.type The type of filter that you want to apply to incoming requests. In this example, the RequestHeaderModifier filter is used.
    spec.rules.filters.requestHeaderModifier.set The name and value of the request header that you want to set.
    spec.rules.backendRefs The Kubernetes service you want to forward traffic to. In this example, all traffic is forwarded to the httpbin app that you set up as part of the get started guide.

  2. Send a request to the httpbin app on the headers.example domain. Verify that you get back a 200 HTTP response code and that the my-header: kgateway header was added. 

    curl -vi http://$INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS:8080/headers -H "host: headers.example:8080"
    curl -vi localhost:8080/headers -H "host: headers.example"

    Example output:

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    * Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
{
  "headers": {
    "Accept": [
      "*/*"
   ],
    "Host": [
      "headers.example:8080"
    ],
    "My-Header": [
      "kgateway"
    ],
   "User-Agent": [
      "curl/7.77.0"
    ],
...

  3. Send another request to the httpbin app. This time, you already include the my-header header in your request. Verify that you get back a 200 HTTP response code and that your my-header header value is overwritten with the value from the RequestHeaderModifier filter. 

    curl -vi http://$INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS:8080/headers -H "host: headers.example:8080" \
-H "my-header: foo"
    curl -vi localhost:8080/headers -H "host: headers.example" \
-H "my-header: foo"

    Example output:

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    * Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
{
  "headers": {
     "Accept": [
      "*/*"
    ],
    "Host": [
      "headers.example:8080"
    ],
    "My-Header": [
      "kgateway"
    ],
...

  4. Optional: Remove the resources that you created.

    kubectl delete httproute httpbin-headers -n httpbin

Remove request headers

You can remove HTTP headers from a request before the request is forwarded to the target service in the cluster.

  1. Send a request to the httpbin app and find the User-Agent header. 

    curl -vi http://$INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS:8080/headers -H "host: www.example.com:8080"
    curl -vi localhost:8080/headers -H "host: www.example.com"

    Example output:

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    ...
{
  "headers": {
    "Accept": [
      "*/*"
    ],
    "Host": [
      "www.example.com:8080"
    ],
    "User-Agent": [
      "curl/7.77.0"
    ],
    "X-Envoy-Expected-Rq-Timeout-Ms": [
      "15000"
    ],
    "X-Forwarded-Proto": [
      "http"
    ],
    "X-Request-Id": [
      "5b14c790-3870-4f73-a12e-4cba9a7eccd7"
    ]
  }
}

  2. Create an HTTPRoute resource for the httpbin app that removes the User-Agent header when requests are sent to the headers.example domain.

    kubectl apply -f- <<EOF
apiVersion: gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: httpbin-headers
  namespace: httpbin
spec:
  parentRefs:
  - name: http
    namespace: kgateway-system
  hostnames:
    - headers.example
  rules:
    - filters:
        - type: RequestHeaderModifier
          requestHeaderModifier:
            remove: 
              - User-Agent
      backendRefs:
        - name: httpbin
          port: 8000
EOF
    Setting Description
    spec.parentRefs The name and namespace of the gateway that serves this HTTPRoute. In this example, you use the http gateway that was created as part of the get started guide.
    spec.rules.filters.type The type of filter that you want to apply to incoming requests. In this example, the RequestHeaderModifier filter is used.
    spec.rules.filters.requestHeaderModifier.remove The name of the request header that you want to remove.
    spec.rules.backendRefs The backend destination you want to forward traffic to. In this example, all traffic is forwarded to the httpbin app that you set up as part of the get started guide.

  3. Send a request to the httpbin app on the headers.example domain . Verify that the User-Agent request header is removed. 

    curl -vi http://$INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS:8080/headers -H "host: headers.example:8080"
    curl -vi localhost:8080/headers -H "host: headers.example"

    Example output:

    {
  "headers": {
    "Accept": [
      "*/*"
    ],
    "Host": [
      "headers.example:8080"
    ],
    "X-Envoy-Expected-Rq-Timeout-Ms": [
      "15000"
    ],
    "X-Forwarded-Proto": [
      "http"
    ],
    "X-Request-Id": [
      "f83bb750-67f7-47dc-8c79-4a582892034c"
    ]
  }
}

  4. Optional: Clean up the resources that you created.

    kubectl delete httproute httpbin-headers -n httpbin
Response headers