aid: httpstat:httpstat-rules
name: Httpstat.us Rules
description: >-
  Rules and guidelines for using the Httpstat.us API to simulate HTTP
  responses for testing client behavior, error handling, retry logic,
  and timeout scenarios.
type: Rules
tags:
  - HTTP
  - Status Codes
  - Testing
  - Rules
rules:
  - name: Use For Testing Only
    description: >-
      Httpstat.us is intended exclusively for testing and development.
      Do not depend on it as a production endpoint or for live system
      health checks.
  - name: Respect Sleep Limits
    description: >-
      The hosted instance enforces a maximum sleep duration of roughly
      230 seconds. Avoid issuing sleep values larger than this on the
      shared instance.
  - name: Honor Accept Header
    description: >-
      Set the Accept header to application/json when JSON responses
      are required. Otherwise the service responds with text/plain by
      default.
  - name: Validate Status Code Inputs
    description: >-
      Only request status codes that the service supports. Unknown or
      malformed codes return a 400 Bad Request response.
  - name: Use Random Range Wisely
    description: >-
      When using the /random/{range} endpoint, supply a comma separated
      list of codes or hyphenated ranges. Duplicate values bias the
      probability of selection.
  - name: Avoid Abusive Traffic
    description: >-
      The service is community hosted. Throttle requests, avoid load
      testing the live host, and self host the open source project for
      heavy use.
  - name: Treat Responses As Simulated
    description: >-
      Returned status codes are simulated and do not represent real
      server health. Do not infer dependency status from Httpstat
      responses.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com