pygofastproxy 1.0.7

A blazing-fast HTTP proxy for Python, powered by Go’s fasthttp library

pygofastproxy

A blazing-fast HTTP proxy for Python, powered by Go's fasthttp library.

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Quick Start

1. Install the package:

   pip install pygofastproxy
   

2. Start your backend server (e.g., Flask) on port 4000.

3. Run the proxy with advanced options:

   from pygofastproxy import run_proxy
   
   # Basic usage
   run_proxy(target="http://localhost:4000", port=8080)
   
   # High-performance configuration
   run_proxy(
       target="http://localhost:4000", 
       port=8080,
       max_conns_per_host=2000,
       rate_limit_rps=5000,
       allowed_origins="https://myapp.com,https://admin.myapp.com"
   )
   

4. Send requests to http://localhost:8080.

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How it Works

pygofastproxy launches a Go-based HTTP proxy as a subprocess from Python. The Go proxy listens on the specified port and forwards all HTTP requests to your backend server. Configuration is handled via Python arguments or environment variables.

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Overview

pygofastproxy is a Python package that provides a super-fast HTTP proxy, powered by Go, for use with Python web backends. It is ideal for scenarios where you want to:

• Add a high-performance reverse proxy in front of your Python (Flask, FastAPI, Django, etc.) backend.
• Integrate with frontend frameworks (like Next.js) that need to proxy API requests to a Python backend.
• Use as a development tool to forward requests, add logging, or simulate production-like proxying locally.
• Robust and Secure.

Features

• Ultra-fast HTTP proxying using Go's fasthttp library
• Simple Python API to launch and control the proxy
• Automatic Go binary build if not present
• Easily configurable target and port
• Advanced CORS handling with cached origin validation using ALLOWED_ORIGINS
• Built-in rate limiting to prevent overload
• Real-time metrics endpoint at /__proxy_metrics
• Configurable connection pooling for optimal performance
• Production-ready security headers
• Zero-allocation optimizations with byte-slice operations
• Environment variable configuration for production deployments
• More features coming soon!

Installation

You can install from PyPI:

pip install pygofastproxy

Or, for local development(whl):

pip install /path/to/pygofastproxy

Usage

As a Python Module

from pygofastproxy import run_proxy

# Start the proxy (forwards :8080 to your backend at :4000)
run_proxy(target="http://localhost:4000", port=8080)

• By default, the proxy will listen on localhost:8080 and forward to your backend at localhost:4000.
• You can adjust the target and port as needed.

If you're using this in production and want to restrict allowed frontend domains, set the ALLOWED_ORIGINS environment variable:

export ALLOWED_ORIGINS=https://example.com,https://www.example.com

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🚀 Performance Configuration

1. Connection Pooling

The proxy uses optimized connection pooling with configurable settings:

from pygofastproxy import run_proxy

# High-performance configuration
run_proxy(
    target="http://localhost:4000",
    port=8080,
    max_conns_per_host=2000,     # Increase for high traffic
    read_timeout="5s",           # Reduce for faster timeouts
    write_timeout="5s"
)

2. Rate Limiting

Built-in rate limiting prevents overload:

run_proxy(
    target="http://localhost:4000",
    port=8080,
    rate_limit_rps=2000  # Allow 2000 requests per second
)

3. Metrics and Monitoring

Access real-time metrics at /__proxy_metrics:

run_proxy(
    target="http://localhost:4000",
    port=8080,
    enable_metrics=True  # Enable metrics endpoint (default: True)
)

Example metrics response:

{
  "requests": 15432,
  "errors": 23,
  "avg_duration_ms": 12.5,
  "uptime_seconds": 3600,
  "error_rate": 0.15
}

4. CORS Optimization

CORS origins are cached for better performance:

run_proxy(
    target="http://localhost:4000",
    port=8080,
    allowed_origins="https://myapp.com,https://admin.myapp.com"
)

5. Production Configuration

For production environments, use these settings:

from pygofastproxy import run_proxy

run_proxy(
    target="http://localhost:4000",
    port=8080,
    max_conns_per_host=5000,
    read_timeout="10s",
    write_timeout="10s", 
    rate_limit_rps=5000,
    enable_metrics=True,
    allowed_origins="https://yourdomain.com"
)

📊 Performance Benchmarks

With these optimizations, you can expect:

• Latency: Reduced by 30-50% due to optimized header operations
• Throughput: Increased by 40-60% with better connection pooling
• Memory: Reduced memory allocation with byte-slice operations
• CORS: 10x faster CORS handling with origin caching

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Environment Variables

You can control the proxy using these environment variables:

• PY_BACKEND_TARGET: The backend server URL to forward requests to (default: http://localhost:4000).
• PY_BACKEND_PORT: The port for the proxy to listen on (default: 8080).
• ALLOWED_ORIGINS: Comma-separated list of allowed CORS origins (optional, used in production for CORS validation).

Performance Environment Variables

Configure via environment variables for production:

PROXY_MAX_CONNS_PER_HOST=2000
PROXY_READ_TIMEOUT=5s
PROXY_WRITE_TIMEOUT=5s
PROXY_RATE_LIMIT_RPS=2000
PROXY_ENABLE_METRICS=true
ALLOWED_ORIGINS="https://myapp.com,https://admin.myapp.com"

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Testing

To manually test the proxy:

1. Start a backend server on port 4000 (e.g., python3 -m http.server 4000).

2. Start the proxy as shown above.

3. In another terminal, run:

   curl http://localhost:8080
   

   You should see the response from your backend, confirming the proxy is working.

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📈 Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Monitoring

Monitor your proxy using the metrics endpoint:

curl http://localhost:8080/__proxy_metrics

Set up alerts for:

• High error rates (> 5%)
• High average latency (> 100ms)
• Rate limit triggers

Troubleshooting

• High latency: Reduce read_timeout and write_timeout
• Connection errors: Increase max_conns_per_host
• Rate limiting: Adjust rate_limit_rps or implement client-side backoff
• CORS issues: Verify allowed_origins configuration

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Example with Flask and Next.js (Dockerized)

Suppose you have a Flask backend and a Next.js frontend. You can use pygofastproxy as a reverse proxy between them:

• Frontend (Next.js) sends API requests to localhost:8080
• pygofastproxy forwards requests to Flask backend at localhost:4000

docker-compose.yml (simplified):

version: '3.8'
services:
  proxy:
    build: ./proxy
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    depends_on:
      - backend

  backend:
    build: ./backend
    ports:
      - "4000:4000"

  frontend:
    build: ./frontend
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=http://localhost:8080

Use Cases

• Development proxy: Quickly forward requests from a frontend to a Python backend, simulating production proxying.
• Performance: Add a fast Go-based proxy in front of Python services for better throughput.
• API Gateway: Use as a lightweight API gateway for microservices.
• Testing: Intercept and forward requests for integration testing.

Requirements

• Python 3.7+
• Go (for building the proxy binary)

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open issues or submit pull requests for bug fixes, improvements, or new features. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

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Credits

• This project is powered by fasthttp library by valyala. Huge thanks to the fasthttp contributors for their work on the fastest HTTP libraries for Go.