From 27e69f561b0a263e716cbb8678d30759d70d552f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ryan Fowler <ryan.fowler19@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2026 21:33:10 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] fix(http): skip decoding metadata-only responses

---
 internal/client/client.go      | 27 +++++++++++++++++-
 internal/client/client_test.go | 51 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 77 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/internal/client/client.go b/internal/client/client.go
index be1b67da..41e4ca00 100644
--- a/internal/client/client.go
+++ b/internal/client/client.go
@@ -2128,7 +2128,7 @@ func (c *Client) Do(req *http.Request) (*http.Response, error) {
 	// Decode only the encodings permitted by the request's compression mode.
 	// Keep this outside net/http's transport so all HTTP versions use the same
 	// streaming decoders and malformed encodings produce the same error.
-	if resp.Body != nil {
+	if responseCanHaveBody(resp) {
 		if policy, ok := responseEncodingPolicyFromRequest(req); ok {
 			if !policy.enabled {
 				return resp, nil
@@ -2156,6 +2156,31 @@ func (c *Client) Do(req *http.Request) (*http.Response, error) {
 	return resp, nil
 }
 
+// responseCanHaveBody reports whether HTTP semantics permit a response body.
+// Servers commonly include representation metadata such as Content-Encoding
+// on HEAD and 304 responses even though no encoded bytes follow. Constructing
+// a streaming decoder for those responses would incorrectly turn valid
+// metadata-only responses into errors such as "gzip: EOF".
+func responseCanHaveBody(resp *http.Response) bool {
+	if resp == nil || resp.Body == nil || resp.Body == http.NoBody {
+		return false
+	}
+	if resp.Request != nil {
+		switch resp.Request.Method {
+		case http.MethodHead:
+			return false
+		case http.MethodConnect:
+			if resp.StatusCode >= http.StatusOK && resp.StatusCode < http.StatusMultipleChoices {
+				return false
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return resp.StatusCode >= http.StatusOK &&
+		resp.StatusCode != http.StatusNoContent &&
+		resp.StatusCode != http.StatusResetContent &&
+		resp.StatusCode != http.StatusNotModified
+}
+
 type responseBodyDecoder func(io.ReadCloser) (io.ReadCloser, error)
 
 type namedResponseBodyDecoder struct {
diff --git a/internal/client/client_test.go b/internal/client/client_test.go
index 84328d79..faa94911 100644
--- a/internal/client/client_test.go
+++ b/internal/client/client_test.go
@@ -2690,6 +2690,57 @@ func TestDoOnlyDecodesAllowedCompression(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestDoDoesNotDecodeMetadataOnlyResponses(t *testing.T) {
+	tests := []struct {
+		name       string
+		method     string
+		statusCode int
+	}{
+		{name: "HEAD", method: http.MethodHead, statusCode: http.StatusOK},
+		{name: "successful CONNECT", method: http.MethodConnect, statusCode: http.StatusOK},
+		{name: "informational", method: http.MethodGet, statusCode: http.StatusSwitchingProtocols},
+		{name: "no content", method: http.MethodGet, statusCode: http.StatusNoContent},
+		{name: "reset content", method: http.MethodGet, statusCode: http.StatusResetContent},
+		{name: "not modified", method: http.MethodGet, statusCode: http.StatusNotModified},
+	}
+
+	for _, tt := range tests {
+		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			closed := false
+			c := &Client{c: &http.Client{Transport: roundTripFunc(func(req *http.Request) (*http.Response, error) {
+				return &http.Response{
+					StatusCode:    tt.statusCode,
+					ContentLength: 128,
+					Header:        http.Header{"Content-Encoding": {"gzip"}},
+					Body:          &closeFlagReadCloser{Reader: bytes.NewReader(nil), closedPtr: &closed},
+					Request:       req,
+				}, nil
+			})}}
+			req, err := c.NewRequest(context.Background(), RequestConfig{
+				Compression: core.CompressionGzip,
+				Method:      tt.method,
+				URL:         mustURL(t, "https://example.com"),
+			})
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
+			}
+			resp, err := c.Do(req)
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("Do returned an error for a response without a body: %v", err)
+			}
+			if resp.ContentLength != 128 || WireContentLength(resp) != 128 {
+				t.Fatalf("content lengths = %d and %d, want encoded metadata length 128", resp.ContentLength, WireContentLength(resp))
+			}
+			if err := resp.Body.Close(); err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
+			}
+			if !closed {
+				t.Fatal("response body was not closed")
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
 func TestDoRejectsDisallowedAndMalformedContentEncoding(t *testing.T) {
 	tests := []struct {
 		name     string