KrakenD No Redirects Plugin

A KrakenD HTTP client plugin that disables automatic redirect following. This plugin forces the HTTP client to return redirect responses (3xx) directly to the caller instead of automatically following them.

Features

• Disables automatic HTTP redirect following
• Returns 3xx responses with Location headers intact
• Preserves all response headers and status codes
• Compatible with KrakenD 2.x
• Available for Linux AMD64 and ARM64 architectures

Compatibility

• KrakenD: 2.x
• Go: 1.25.6
• Platforms: Linux (amd64, arm64)

Installation

Download Pre-built Binary

Download the latest release for your architecture:

# For AMD64
wget https://github.com/ulbwa/krakend-no-redirects-plugin/releases/latest/download/no-redirects-linux-amd64.so

# For ARM64
wget https://github.com/ulbwa/krakend-no-redirects-plugin/releases/latest/download/no-redirects-linux-arm64.so

Build from Source

Note: The plugin must be built on Linux as it requires CGO and Linux-specific compilation.

For local development and testing, use the provided Docker setup:

git clone https://github.com/ulbwa/krakend-no-redirects-plugin.git
cd krakend-no-redirects-plugin
make build

The compiled plugin will be available in the bin/ directory.

Usage

Docker

Mount the plugin file to /etc/krakend/plugins/ in your KrakenD container:

docker run -p 8080:8080 \
  -v $PWD/no-redirects-linux-amd64.so:/etc/krakend/plugins/no-redirects.so:ro \
  -v $PWD/krakend.json:/etc/krakend/krakend.json:ro \
  krakend:latest run -c /etc/krakend/krakend.json

Docker Compose

version: '3'
services:
  krakend:
    image: krakend:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./no-redirects-linux-amd64.so:/etc/krakend/plugins/no-redirects.so:ro
      - ./krakend.json:/etc/krakend/krakend.json:ro
    command: ["run", "-c", "/etc/krakend/krakend.json"]

Self-Hosted Installation

1. Copy the plugin to your KrakenD plugins directory:

sudo cp no-redirects-linux-amd64.so /usr/local/lib/krakend/plugins/no-redirects.so
sudo chmod 644 /usr/local/lib/krakend/plugins/no-redirects.so

2. Update your KrakenD configuration to load the plugin.

Configuration

Enable Plugin Globally

Add the plugin to your krakend.json configuration:

{
  "version": 3,
  "plugin": {
    "folder": "/etc/krakend/plugins/",
    "pattern": ".so"
  }
}

Use Plugin for Specific Endpoints

Configure the plugin as an HTTP client for endpoints that require redirect handling:

{
  "version": 3,
  "endpoints": [
    {
      "endpoint": "/redirect-test",
      "method": "GET",
      "output_encoding": "no-op",
      "backend": [
        {
          "url_pattern": "/redirect-to?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgoogle.com&status_code=302",
          "host": ["https://httpbin.org"],
          "encoding": "no-op",
          "extra_config": {
            "plugin/http-client": {
              "name": "krakend-no-redirects"
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Complete Example

{
  "version": 3,
  "plugin": {
    "folder": "/etc/krakend/plugins/",
    "pattern": ".so"
  },
  "endpoints": [
    {
      "endpoint": "/api/redirect",
      "method": "GET",
      "output_encoding": "no-op",
      "backend": [
        {
          "url_pattern": "/redirect-to?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgoogle.com&status_code=302",
          "host": ["https://httpbin.org"],
          "encoding": "no-op",
          "extra_config": {
            "plugin/http-client": {
              "name": "krakend-no-redirects"
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

When you call GET /api/redirect, the plugin will return the 302/301 response directly instead of following the redirect.

How It Works

The plugin replaces KrakenD's default HTTP client with a custom client that sets CheckRedirect to return http.ErrUseLastResponse. This prevents the Go HTTP client from automatically following redirects and returns the redirect response to the caller.

Development

Prerequisites

• Go 1.25.6 or later
• Make
• GCC (for CGO)

Build

make build

The compiled plugin will be available in the bin/ directory.

Note: This plugin does not support cross-compilation. You must build on the target platform (AMD64 or ARM64) to generate the corresponding .so file. The build process automatically detects the host architecture and produces a binary for that platform only.

Clean Build Artifacts

make clean

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

References

• Выпускайте Кракена: опыт использования KrakenD
• KrakenD Plugin Documentation
• KrakenD Configuration