http

pg_http : HTTP client for PostgreSQL, allows web page retrieval inside the database.

Overview

Packages

Source

pig build pkg pg_http;		# build rpm

Install

Make sure PGDG and PIGSTY repo available:

pig repo add pgsql -u   # add both repo and update cache

Install this extension with pig:

pig install pg_http;		# install via package name, for the active PG version
pig install http;		# install by extension name, for the current active PG version

pig install http -v 18;   # install for PG 18
pig install http -v 17;   # install for PG 17
pig install http -v 16;   # install for PG 16
pig install http -v 15;   # install for PG 15
pig install http -v 14;   # install for PG 14

Create this extension with:

CREATE EXTENSION http;

Usage

Sources: README, v1.7.1 release

http lets SQL code make HTTP requests through libcurl. Use it for controlled integration points such as triggers that notify an external service, SQL jobs that fetch a small remote payload, or database-side webhook calls.

CREATE EXTENSION http;

Request And Response Types

Every request uses http_request and returns http_response:

http_request(method http_method, uri varchar, headers http_header[], content_type varchar, content varchar)
http_response(status integer, content_type varchar, headers http_header[], content varchar)

Convenience wrappers call the same underlying http(http_request) function:

• http_get(uri varchar)
• http_get(uri varchar, data jsonb)
• http_post(uri varchar, content varchar, content_type varchar)
• http_post(uri varchar, data jsonb)
• http_put(uri varchar, content varchar, content_type varchar)
• http_patch(uri varchar, content varchar, content_type varchar)
• http_delete(uri varchar)
• http_head(uri varchar)

Examples

SELECT status, content_type, content
FROM http_get('https://httpbun.com/ip');

SELECT content::json->'headers'->>'Authorization'
FROM http((
  'GET',
  'https://httpbun.com/headers',
  http_headers('Authorization', 'Bearer token'),
  NULL,
  NULL
)::http_request);

SELECT status, content::json->'form' AS form
FROM http_post(
  'https://httpbun.com/post',
  jsonb_build_object('myvar', 'myval', 'foo', 'bar')
);

SELECT status, content_type, content::json->>'data' AS data
FROM http_put('https://httpbun.com/put', 'some text', 'text/plain');

Inspect response headers by unnesting the headers array:

SELECT (unnest(headers)).*
FROM http_get('https://httpbun.com/');

Binary Content

The README warns that varchar::bytea is not safe for binary response bodies because it stops at zero-valued bytes. Use text_to_bytea(content) for response content and bytea_to_text(bytea) when sending binary request bodies.

WITH http AS (
  SELECT * FROM http_get('https://httpbingo.org/image/png')
)
SELECT content_type, length(text_to_bytea(content)) AS bytes
FROM http;

Timeout And Version Notes

pg_http 1.7.1 is a compatibility and documentation release: it adds timeout examples, adds PostgreSQL 17 wait-event hooks, and includes PostgreSQL 19 support fixes. The user-facing SQL API remains the README surface above.