WebAssembly is a way to safely run code compiled in other languages. Runtimes execute WebAssembly Modules (Wasm), which are most often binaries with a .wasm extension.

WebAssembly has a virtual machine architecture where the host is the embedding process and the guest is a program compiled into the WebAssembly Binary Format, also known as Wasm. The Application Binary Interface (ABI) is the contract between the host and the guest, primarily defining functions each side can import.

Implementations of the http-handler ABI allows you to manipulate an incoming request or serve a response with custom logic compiled to a Wasm binary. In other words, you can extend features of your HTTP server binary with third-party code, without recompiling.

Let’s take an example of a program that embeds an HTTP handler. This handler has a chain of handler that allows it to customize or change requests and responses. Handler in Wasm can be included in this chain.

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The http-handler host is written in native code, and compiled into the application. Here are the currently supported hosts:

  • Go: e.g. for net/http
  • Node.js: e.g. for express

The http-handler guest can be written in any language that supports the ABI in use by the host. Here are the currently supported guests:

In fact, http-handler was written to be implemented in any guest language, including by hand. To prove it, we implemented many examples, in WebAssembly’s text format.

In summary, while native handler often require rebuilding the program from source, users of http-handler are free to swap out implementations decoupled from any changes to the binary. WebAssembly is a sand-boxed architecture, so the host process can safely run code defined externally.