Question: Using the connect protocol for requests to a gRPC-Go backend

Hello,

At clarifai, we’re already using grpc to expose our API using the native binary protocol. As I understand it, our backend team is using the golang grpc library from https://pkg.go.dev/google.golang.org/grpc to expose the service.

I’m evaluating the connect-web toolkit for building a typescript browser client for my team’s front end react app, and I have to say so far I’m really loving the fact that the code it generates is MUCH more idiomatic than what grpc-web produces.

I’d like to know if a connect-web TS client, using the connect transport, can send requests to such a backend, or would we have to make changes to our backend in order to accept/respond to requests from a connect transport. I was looking at your homepage at https://connect.build, and noticed the following, which suggests the connect protocol can interop with native grpc servers, but maybe I’m misreading it?

In addition to its own protocol, Connect servers and clients also support gRPC — including streaming!
They interoperate seamlessly with Envoy, grpcurl, gRPC Gateway, and every other gRPC implementation.

[timostamm]

That is correct, connect-go does support “multiplexing”.

For example, the API for our schema registry serves the Connect protocol:

curl \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --data '{"query": "e", "pageSize": 10}' \
    https://api.buf.build/buf.alpha.registry.v1alpha1.SearchService/Search

But you can just as well hit the same endpoint with gRPC or gRPC-web clients.

[akshayjshah]

Closing this, as I think the question is answered. @alexandros-megas, let us know if we can help going forward. We also have an active Slack workspace.

If you connect with us on Slack, we’re also happy to chat in detail or arrange a conversation with any internal stakeholders.