I agree that this looks like a good addition, so +1 to the proposal.

On Thu, Sep 3, 2026 at 1:04 AM Prashant Singh <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Thanks for starting the thread Rahul !
> +1 to the proposal
>
> On Wed, Sep 2, 2026 at 3:37 PM Daniel Weeks <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hey Rahul,
>>
>> Thanks for the proposal. Minor comments on the spec, but overall looks
>> great.
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 2, 2026 at 3:01 PM Ryan Blue <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> This looks like a good proposal to me. Thanks, Rahul.
>>>
>>> On Wed, Sep 2, 2026 at 9:05 AM Alex Dutra <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Rahul,
>>>>
>>>> I really like your proposal. Some time ago, I attempted to identify
>>>> clients in Polaris by analyzing their User-Agent and X-Client-Version
>>>> headers, but I quickly discovered that this approach was far more
>>>> complicated and unreliable than I had expected [1]. I think the
>>>> standardization that you are proposing here will finally make it
>>>> doable.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Alex
>>>>
>>>> [1]: https://github.com/apache/polaris/pull/4236
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Sep 1, 2026 at 6:26 PM rahul mahadev <[email protected]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> > Hi all,
>>>> >
>>>> > I'd like to propose a recommended User-Agent format for REST catalog
>>>> > clients, so a client identifies itself to a catalog in a consistent,
>>>> > parseable way.
>>>> >
>>>> > Today it's inconsistent:
>>>> > - iceberg-java sends no User-Agent by default (it's opt-in via
>>>> config).
>>>> > - pyiceberg sends "PyIceberg/<version>", iceberg-rust
>>>> "iceberg-rs/<version>",
>>>> >   iceberg-go "GoIceberg/<version>" basically all different naming.
>>>> > - X-Client-Version carries the library version in Java/Python but the
>>>> REST
>>>> >   spec version in Rust/Go.
>>>> > - None of this is described in the spec.
>>>> >
>>>> > That makes it hard for a catalog operator to tell what's actually
>>>> calling,
>>>> > which matters for observability, debugging, and support.
>>>> >
>>>> > Proposal: use the standard User-Agent header (RFC 7231) i.e.
>>>> whitespace-
>>>> > separated product/version tokens, most specific first (engine ->
>>>> > integration -> Iceberg library -> runtime), with an optional
>>>> parenthesized
>>>> > comment for extra context. Example:
>>>> >
>>>> >   Spark/4.0.0 iceberg-spark/1.9.0 iceberg-java/1.9.0 (scala/2.13.16)
>>>> >
>>>> > The Iceberg library token is the one piece every client can supply,
>>>> so it
>>>> > should always be present. The header is optional and informational
>>>> only:
>>>> > servers must not reject on it, must not use it for auth or trust
>>>> decisions,
>>>> > and it is not a capability negotiation mechanism.
>>>> >
>>>> > Draft PR with the spec change:
>>>> > https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/17727
>>>> >
>>>> > If the format looks right, the follow-ups would be conforming the
>>>> client
>>>> > libraries (java / python / rust / go) to emit it.
>>>> >
>>>> > A few open questions:
>>>> > 1. Should we also reconcile X-Client-Version (library vs spec version
>>>> >    across clients), or leave it and treat User-Agent as the canonical
>>>> >    identity going forward?
>>>> > 2. Naming: keep the existing library names (PyIceberg, iceberg-rs,
>>>> >    GoIceberg) or converge on one scheme (iceberg-<lang>)?
>>>> > 3. Is a separate environment token (e.g. prod/staging) useful, or does
>>>> >    that belong in the comment?
>>>> > 4. Any other fields we want to capture ?
>>>> >
>>>> > Feedback welcome.
>>>> >
>>>> > Thanks,
>>>> > Rahul Mahadev (github: rahulsmahadev)
>>>>
>>>

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