# Gaps Compared to nginx, Traefik, Caddy, HAProxy, and Envoy
This document tracks what is missing for `rws` to be competitive with production-grade web servers and reverse proxies.
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## Critical gaps (core server functionality)
### Reverse proxy ✅ Done (v17.20.0)
`src/proxy/ReverseProxy` forwards requests to HTTP backends with round-robin load balancing. `path_prefix` routing lets the proxy coexist with local handlers. Returns `502 Bad Gateway` when all backends fail.
Remaining: TLS upstreams, weighted distribution, health-check probes, circuit breaker.
### Virtual hosting / SNI routing ✅ Done (v17.29.0)
`SniCertResolver` (`src/tls/mod.rs`) selects the correct TLS certificate at handshake time based on the SNI hostname sent in the client `ClientHello`. `create_tls_acceptor_from_vhosts()` and `create_quinn_server_config_from_vhosts()` replace the previous single-cert path for HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 respectively. Add one `[[virtual_host]]` block per domain in `rws.config.toml` (or set `RWS_CONFIG_VIRTUAL_HOST_{N}_DOMAIN/CERT_FILE/KEY_FILE` env vars). The negotiated hostname is exposed as `ConnectionInfo::sni_hostname: Option<String>` in every handler. `Router::with_host(name)` restricts a router's routes to one virtual host; the `Host` request header is used as fallback for plain-HTTP connections. SIGHUP hot-reloads all virtual host certs alongside the default cert.
Remaining: wildcard domain matching (e.g. `*.example.com`), automatic per-vhost ACME provisioning, weighted traffic splitting across virtual hosts.
### Automatic TLS (ACME) ✅ Done — v17.25.0
`AcmeManager` (feature flag `acme`) auto-provisions and renews Let's Encrypt certificates. Set `RWS_CONFIG_ACME_DOMAINS` and `RWS_CONFIG_ACME_EMAIL` at startup; a background task renews before expiry and triggers a TLS hot-reload via SIGHUP. OCSP stapling is not yet implemented.
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## Important gaps
### Rate limiting ✅ Done
`RateLimiter` and `RateLimitLayer` provide per-IP sliding-window rate limiting configurable via env vars.
Remaining: per-route rate caps, least-connections upstream selection.
### Request / response rewriting ✅ Done (v17.30.0)
`RewriteLayer` (`src/rewrite/mod.rs`) is a composable `Middleware` that transforms requests before they reach handlers and responses before they leave the server. Builder API: `.request_header_set(name, value)`, `.request_header_remove(name)`, `.request_uri_set(uri)`, `.request_uri_strip_prefix(prefix)`, `.request_uri_add_prefix(prefix)`, `.response_header_set(name, value)`, `.response_header_remove(name)`, `.response_status(code, reason)`, `.response_body_replace(from, to)`. The incoming request is cloned; the original is never mutated.
`X-Forwarded-For` and `Via` are injected automatically by `ReverseProxy`.
Remaining: regex URI rewriting, conditional rewrites (match on header/status), per-route rewrite rule tables.
### Authentication middleware ✅ Done
`BasicAuthLayer` (HTTP Basic) and `JwtLayer` (HS256 JWT) ship in the `auth` feature. `IpFilter::allow` / `IpFilter::deny` handle IP allowlist/denylist.
Remaining: forward-auth delegation to an external service (Traefik's `ForwardAuth`).
### Response caching ✅ Done (v17.22.0)
`CacheLayer` middleware (`src/cache/`) stores successful `GET` responses in memory and serves subsequent identical requests without calling the handler. Supports TTL, vary-by-header for content negotiation, capacity-bounded eviction (oldest-first), and `Cache-Control: no-store/private` opt-out. `Age` header injected on hits.
Remaining: shared cache across processes (Redis, Memcached), `stale-while-revalidate`, CDN-tier caching (Surrogate-Key, purge API).
### Hot config reload ✅ Done (v17.21.0)
Send `SIGHUP` (or `POST /admin/config/reload`) to re-apply CORS rules, rate-limit thresholds, log format, and request allocation size without restarting. `RateLimiter` limits update live via `AtomicU32`/`AtomicU64`. `config_reload::current()` exposes a typed `ConfigSnapshot` anywhere in the handler stack. TLS cert rotation is also handled by SIGHUP — the acceptor is rebuilt in-place with all virtual host certs (v17.29.0).
Remaining: port/thread-count changes (require restart).
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## Observability gaps
### Per-route metrics ✅ Done (v17.23.0)
`MetricsLayer` middleware (`src/metrics/`) records `rws_route_requests_total{method,path,status}` counters and `rws_route_duration_seconds{method,path}` histograms (11 standard Prometheus buckets) per endpoint. `GET /metrics` now emits per-route data when `MetricsLayer` is in the stack. Query strings are stripped before keying to avoid cardinality explosion.
Remaining: OpenTelemetry export, per-route error-rate alerting, cardinality limits.
### Distributed tracing ✅ Done (v17.24.0)
`OtelLayer` middleware adds W3C Trace Context propagation and OTLP HTTP export
(Jaeger ≥ 1.35, Grafana Tempo, OpenTelemetry Collector). Zero new Cargo
dependencies.
Remaining: B3 propagation, multi-span (child spans within handlers), baggage
propagation, automatic instrumentation of DB/HTTP calls.
### Access log rotation
No built-in log rotation or external log shipping (syslog, journald). Relies on the OS or a sidecar container.
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## Protocol gaps
| Protocol | nginx | Traefik | Caddy | rws |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HTTP/1.1 reverse proxy | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| HTTP/2 reverse proxy | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ (`H2ReverseProxy`, `http2` feature) |
| TCP proxy (L4) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ (`TcpProxy`) |
| UDP proxy | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ (`UdpProxy`, request-reply) |
| WebSocket (server) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| WebSocket proxy | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ (`WsProxy`, standalone listener) |
| gRPC proxy | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ (`GrpcProxy`, `http2` feature; trailers pending) |
| Server-Sent Events | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| mTLS (client certificates) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ (`RWS_CONFIG_TLS_CLIENT_CA_FILE`) |
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## Kubernetes / cloud-native gaps
### Ingress controller
Traefik and nginx both run as Kubernetes Ingress controllers, reading `Ingress` / `IngressRoute` objects from the API server and dynamically routing traffic. `rws` has no service discovery or dynamic configuration model.
### Service discovery
No integration with Consul, etcd, Docker labels, or the Kubernetes API.
### Traffic splitting / canary routing
No weighted routing between versions (e.g. 10% to v2, 90% to v1).
### Circuit breaker / retry
No upstream health-based circuit breaking or automatic retries on upstream 5xx responses.
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## Implementation priority
| Priority | Gap | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reverse proxy + load balancing | ✅ Done (v17.20.0) |
| 2 | Virtual hosting / SNI routing | ✅ Done (v17.29.0) |
| 3 | Automatic TLS (ACME / Let's Encrypt) | ✅ Done (v17.25.0) |
| 4 | Rate limiting | ✅ Done |
| 5 | Request / response rewriting | ✅ Done (v17.30.0) |
| 6 | Authentication middleware | ✅ Done (Basic, JWT, IP filter) |
| 7 | Response caching | ✅ Done (v17.22.0) |
| 8 | WebSocket support | ✅ Done (v17.8.0) |
| 9 | Hot config reload | ✅ Done (v17.21.0) |
| 10 | Per-route metrics | ✅ Done (v17.23.0) |
| 11 | Distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry) | ✅ Done (v17.24.0) |