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HTTP_STATUS_TEAPOT
HTTP_STATUS_TEAPOT represents HTTP 418, the number associated with I'm a Teapot. RFC 2324 introduced the status in the April 1, 1998 Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol: a teapot asked to brew coffee is supposed to return 418 because the resulting entity body may be short and stout.
418 is not a normal application status in current HTTP
RFC 9110 lists code 418 as Unused and reserves it rather than assigning ordinary HTTP semantics. The IANA HTTP Status Code Registry likewise identifies 418 as unused with RFC 9110 as its reference. Production APIs that return 418 as an Easter egg, policy signal, or application-specific error are therefore defining private behavior, not invoking a standardized HTTP recovery procedure.
When 418 appears unexpectedly, identify the component that generated it and inspect the response body and local application rules. A generic HTTP client should handle it as an unrecognized 4xx status by class and must not infer coffee-protocol behavior unless the application explicitly implements RFC 2324.
References
- RFC 2324, 418 I'm a teapot — the original HTCPCP April Fools' definition.
- RFC 9110, 418 (Unused) — current HTTP treatment of the code.
- IANA HTTP Status Code Registry — current registration status.
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