I built an HTTP/2 server in C++ to learn the protocol and language
Details
- External ID
- 46486853
- Source
- HN
- Company
- —
- Product
- I built an HTTP/2 server in C++ to learn the protocol and language
- Website domain
- github.com
- Launched
- Jan. 4, 2026
- Cohort
- —
- Upvotes
- 11
- Upvotes percentile
- 0.5335968379446641
- Tags
- —
- Fetched at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.
- Updated at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.
Description
I wanted to learn more about the HTTP/2 protocol but also deep dive into modern C++ development. I'm currently using it to host my personal web site - https://www.roberthargreaves.com.I've also blogged a bit about the development process, hosting options and steps I took to harden the application against attack - https://blog.roberthargreaves.com/2026/01/03/building-hostin...It's by no means a complete implementation of HTTP/2, but I think I've achieved the main aims I was hoping to achieve with it!I would love some feedback though from more experienced folks if there's some egregious failings which I should address.
Enrichment
- Theme
- database infrastructure and developer tools
- Vertical
- Horizontal
- Function
- Dev tools
- Audience
- Developer
- AI stance
- Not AI
- Project type
- Hobby / open-source project
- Normalized one-liner
- http/2 server in c++
- Manually corrected
- False
Could you build this?
No Implementing a compliant, hardened HTTP/2 protocol server from scratch in modern C++ requires deep networking systems expertise, binary framing parsing, HPACK decompression, and stream multiplexing state machines.
What it would actually take: A developer must implement RFC 7540 and RFC 7541 (HPACK header compression) using modern asynchronous C++ (e.g., ASIO or epoll event loops). Core challenges include stateful stream flow control, priority trees, TLS ALPN negotiation via OpenSSL, and edge-case hardening against DDoS attacks (e.g., rapid reset and stream starvation).
Discussion
No comments on this launch.
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one — 103 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #52 of 104 (itself plus its competitors, highest first — normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 67 days after the earliest competitor.
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- HTTP/3 and raw QUIC client/server APIs for Node.js · hn · 2026-06-08 · 16 upvotes · similarity 0.43
- Lightweight C++23 S3 client with no extra deps (just curl and OpenSSL) · hn · 2026-06-13 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.43
- Please hack my C webserver (it's a collaborative whiteboard) · hn · 2026-02-15 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.41
- C/C++ Cheatsheet · hn · 2026-01-23 · 10 upvotes · similarity 0.41
- 2D RPG base game client recreated in modern HTML5 game engine with AI · hn · 2026-03-10 · 11 upvotes · similarity 0.41
- Learning Rust by writing a Markdown to HTML compiler · hn · 2026-07-29 · 25 upvotes · similarity 0.41
- Capsule · hn · 2026-07-07 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.40
Other launches for this product
- No other launches for this product.
Same idea, different domain
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