HTTP gets a QUERY method so complex searches can stop pretending to be POST

"Idempotent" may be jargon, but the term performs an important job in HTTP as a hall pass that gives reverse proxies and gateways the go-ahead to cache complex query responses and automatically retry failed requests.

HTTP has long allowed automatic retries for idempotent methods, but complex queries are often sent using POST, which intermediaries cannot safely assume is retryable. Developers have worked around that limitation for decades.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has published a new HTTP request method, QUERY (RFC 10008), joining familiar methods including GET, POST, PUT, and PATCH.

In development since 2021, the QUERY request method provides a way for an HTTP client to make an idempotent request to an HTTP server. An idempotent request has the same intended effect whether it is sent once or multiple times (so retrying it should not charge a user's credit card again).

The specification defines QUERY as...

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