Need help with GraphQL over APISIX

[chrisramm]

I am trying to forward a GraphQL request through APISIX to my upstream server. The route works but when I POST a GraphQl request from Postman or curl, it seems that the request body is removed by APISIX and the upstream server replies
"errors": ... "message": "Syntax Error: Unexpected EOF", ... "line": 1, "column": 1
I can reproduce the same behaviour when calling the upstream server directly while removing the Content-length header from the request.

This is my route config:
{
"uri": "/XXX",
"name": "YYY",
"methods": [
"GET",
"HEAD",
"POST"
],
"host": "my.apisix.host",
"plugins": {
"proxy-rewrite": {
"host": "my.upstream.host",
"scheme": "https",
"uri": "/something/XXX"
}
},
"service_id": "581048797765829320",
"upstream_id": "581047889581572808",
"labels": {
"API_VERSION": "1.0"
},
"status": 1
}

Any ideas anybody? Thanks a lot!

[dosubot[bot]]

Hi @chrisramm! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the apisix team.

APISIX should forward GraphQL POST request bodies correctly when using the proxy-rewrite plugin, as it does not remove or modify the request body or Content-Length header by default. Issues like the one you’re seeing are often caused by other plugins (such as kafka-logger with include_req_body: true, ext-plugin, or certain auth plugins) reading or buffering the body before proxying, which can result in the body being lost for the upstream request.

Try disabling all plugins except proxy-rewrite on this route and test again. If the request body is preserved, re-enable plugins one by one to identify the culprit. Also, make sure the Content-Length header is present and correct in the incoming request and not being altered by APISIX or any plugin. If you’re using HTTP/2 or HTTP/3, missing Content-Length will cause the body to be treated as empty, which matches the error you see upstream.

If you need to log request bodies, configure logging plugins carefully to avoid interfering with proxying. For GraphQL APIs, using the degraphql plugin alongside proxy-rewrite is a recommended pattern for advanced scenarios, but not required for simple proxying.

References:

• proxy-rewrite plugin does not remove or modify request body or Content-Length by default
• Kafka-logger and similar plugins can consume the body before proxying, causing issues
• APISIX core request handling and Content-Length requirements

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[chrisramm]

Thanks @dosu ! I have no other plugins except proxy-rewrite configured in that route. The Content-length sent by Postman or curl seems to be ok, since the request works when being sent directly to the upstream server. I also looked at degraphql and thought, as you confirm, that I would not need it for simple proxying.

[Baoyuantop]

Hi @chrisramm, can you provide a minimal reproducible environment? This will help us determine if this is a bug, and if so, we can fix it.

[chrisramm]

Hi @Baoyuantop thanks for coming back to me. I was able to solve the issue. It was cause by the NGINX forcing HTTP > HTTPS. This redirect caused the loss of some headers including content-length which, in return, caused the unexpected EOF further down the road.