request

User-scope entry point for authenticated BYO-key egress (Mechanism B). World code calls request.json(...) / request.bytes(...) instead of using http directly whenever a call needs a world-owned secret. (The built-in .service assets do not use this — they run on the credit-metered path via Service.invoke; see modules.serviceCall.)

Exports

• request.json(credential, method, url, body?, headers?) -> (table?, string?)
• request.bytes(credential, method, url, body?, headers?) -> (string?, string?)

Both return (result) on success or (nil, errMessage) on failure.

How it works

request.json("my_api", ...)        ← userspace (this module)
      │
      ▼
egress.fetch("my_api", ...)        ← Rust primitive
      │  looks up the named credential the trusted VM registered,
      │  appends the auth header in Rust, performs the call
      ▼
upstream API   (production: the ZeroMind egress endpoint)

The secret is never visible to userspace — you only ever name the credential (e.g. "my_api"). The engine injects the header in Rust and returns only the response. The credential carries an allowed host prefix, so a named credential can't be used to send the key to an arbitrary URL.

When NOT to use it

Downloading a finished asset from a returned public / signed CDN URL does not need a credential (and that URL is usually on a different host than the API). Use http.get_bytes(url) directly for those.

Errors

request.* returns nil, err rather than raising, so handlers can do:

local data, err = request.json("my_api", "POST", url, body)
if not data then
    handle:fail(err)
    return
end

Common errors: the credential isn't configured (no V1 secret set / no ZeroMind secret), the URL isn't under the credential's allowed host, or the upstream returned an HTTP error (surfaced as the error message).