httplike

HTTPlike is a protocol family that emulates the request–response style of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for client–server communication. It is designed to be simple, predictable, and portable across varied transport layers, often targeting constrained environments such as embedded systems or internal service meshes.

The term HTTPlike appears in educational materials, conceptual discussions, and vendor documentation to illustrate how HTTP-like semantics can be implemented with a streamlined feature set. It is not a single standardized protocol, but rather a class of designs that borrow HTTP’s syntax and lifecycle while adapting framing, security, or negotiation rules to specific use cases.

Message format typically includes a start line with a method and target, followed by a set of headers and an optional body. A response uses a status line, headers, and an optional body. Common headers are Content-Type and Content-Length; some designs employ fixed-size framing or length-prefixed bodies to simplify parsing. Methods such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE are supported in many HTTPlike variants, with extension mechanisms for custom actions.

HTTPlike differs from HTTP in its emphasis on a smaller, more predictable feature set, and in some cases simplified header semantics or alternative framing to reduce processing overhead. It may avoid the complexity of host-based routing or proxies, focusing instead on direct end-to-end communication within trusted environments.

Implementations and references vary, with HTTPlike appearing in prototyping projects, IoT gateways, and internal microservices documentation. Practitioners use HTTPlike to study REST-like interaction patterns while avoiding some of HTTP's edge-case behavior.

Security considerations include transport security with TLS, authentication mechanisms, input validation, and rate limiting to mitigate abuse. Because HTTPlike reuses HTTP-like semantics, developers must adapt existing security models to the chosen framing and extension rules.