Protocols

HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, and WebSocket protocol handling

4 pages in this section

Pounce supports multiple protocols through a modular handler system. The core ships with HTTP/1.1 via h11. HTTP/2 and WebSocket are optional extras. HTTP/3 is optional with limited parity while reload/drain and benchmark proof remain open. TLS support is also optional and installs withbengal-pounce[tls].

HTTP/1.1
Default protocol - h11 (pure Python) plus sync-worker fast parser

The foundation of Pounce's request handling.
HTTP/2
Stream multiplexing, header compression, priority signals

Install withbengal-pounce[h2].
HTTP/3
Optional-limited QUIC/UDP transport, QPACK, 0-RTT policy, TLS required

Install withbengal-pounce[h3].
WebSocket
Full-duplex communication via wsproto

Install withbengal-pounce[ws]; WebSocket over HTTP/2 also requires h2.

Protocol Detection

For TLS connections, Pounce uses ALPN (Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation) to select between HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2. For plain connections, HTTP/1.1 is used by default.

HTTP/3 uses QUIC over UDP and runs on its own UDP listener when enabled with TLS.

WebSocket connections start as HTTP/1.1 (or HTTP/2) and upgrade via the standard upgrade mechanism.