envoyproxy/envoy

Compression and decompression of gRPC through envoy proxy

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#41,893 opened on Nov 7, 2025

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Description

What is the proper way to use Envoy to compress and decompress application/grpc?

Description I am trying to compress and decompress application/grpc through 2 envoy proxies. One handling the compression and one the decompression. However, I find through Wireshark that the Envoy Decompressor filter breaks the gRPC protocol by failing to set the END_STREAM flag on the final DATA frame, which causes the backend server to immediately send a TCP Reset.

A similar issue has been opened since 2019 but not resolved.

Given this issue, what is the most stable and reliable implementation of compression and decompression through Envoy? Is implementing a header mutation filter to remove the trailers the recommended solution?

Contributor guide

Research direction
Investigate the Envoy decompressor filter's implementation to understand why the END STREAM flag is not set on the final DATA frame for gRPC, and propose a fix to correctly set the flag.
Tech stack
cppgrpc
Domain
infrastructureapi
Issue type
Bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
C++EnvoygRPCHTTP/2
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
30