External Processing

• Http filter v3 API reference

• This filter should be configured with the name envoy.filters.http.ext_proc

The external processing filter connects an external service, called an “external processor,” to the filter chain. The processing service itself implements a gRPC interface that allows it to respond to events in the lifecycle of an HTTP request / response by examining and modifying the headers, body, and trailers of each message, or by returning a brand-new response.

The protocol itself is based on a bidirectional gRPC stream. Envoy will send the external processor ProcessingRequest messages, and the processor must reply with ProcessingResponse messages.

Configuration options are provided to control which events are sent to the processor. This way, the processor may receive headers, body, and trailers for both request and response in any combination. The processor may also change this configuration on a message-by-message basis. This allows for the construction of sophisticated processors that decide how to respond to each message individually to eliminate unnecessary stream requests from the proxy.

This filter is a work in progress. Most of the major bits of functionality are complete. The updated list of supported features and implementation status may be found on the reference page.

Statistics

This filter outputs statistics in the http.<stat_prefix>.ext_proc. namespace. The stat prefix comes from the owning HTTP connection manager.

The following statistics are supported: