HTTP Methods Reference
Standard HTTP request methods: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS, TRACE with safety, idempotency, and body characteristics.
The standard HTTP methods with their safety, idempotence, whether they carry a body and what they are for: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS and TRACE, plus CONNECT for proxy tunnels.
Use it when
- You are choosing a method for an API operation.
- You need to know whether a request can be retried safely.
Watch out for
- Safe and idempotent describe the semantics defined by the specification; a badly designed server can violate them.
- POST is neither safe nor idempotent by definition; use an idempotency key if retries must be safe.
- A request body on GET, HEAD, or DELETE has no generally defined semantics. Do not infer universal support from a client library accepting one.
The data
Methods
9 rows
| Method | Safety | Idempotent | Body | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GET | Safe | true | No generally defined semantics | Retrieve a resource |
| POST | Unsafe | false | Yes | Process the enclosed representation according to the target resource; creation is one use |
| PUT | Unsafe | true | Yes | Replace a resource |
| PATCH | Unsafe | false | Yes | Partially modify a resource |
| DELETE | Unsafe | true | No generally defined semantics | Delete a resource |
| HEAD | Safe | true | No generally defined semantics | GET without response body |
| OPTIONS | Safe | true | No | Describe communication options |
| TRACE | Safe | true | No | Echo request for diagnostic |
| CONNECT | Unsafe | false | No generally defined semantics | Establish a tunnel to the target, used by proxies for HTTPS |
Fields
The shape of this dataset, read from the data itself: every column, its type and a real value. Agents can use this to plan a query without fetching the whole document.
| Section | Field | Type | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| methods | method | string | GET |
| methods | safety | string | Safe |
| methods | idempotent | boolean | true |
| methods | body | string | No generally defined semantics |
| methods | purpose | string | Retrieve a resource |
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Sources and editorial notes
Original editorial reference notes by YJTOON, informed by the linked primary documentation. External specifications retain their own licenses.
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