IETF Standardizes HTTP QUERY Method, Ending Era of POST Workarounds for Safe Queries

The IETF published RFC 10008 today, formally specifying HTTP QUERY—a safe, idempotent request method that carries a body. The gap it fills: GET and HEAD allow no body, forcing API designers toward POST for complex queries despite their read-only nature. QUERY resolves this by permitting body content while preserving safety and idempotency, enabling cacheability and retry semantics at the protocol level. Adoption will require explicit support in frameworks and libraries, mirroring PATCH's path from 2010 onward.