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+# 17685. The user directly controls network handler behavior and event disposition
+
+- Status: Proposed
+- Discussion: [#17685](https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/pull/17685)
+
+## Context
+
+A user can register more than one handler for the same network phase, and matching handlers
+can disagree: the company framework always adds a test header, the local suite stubs all calls
+to a domain, and one test aborts a single call. Selenium must resolve that and provide a single
+response to the browser in a consistent and obvious way.
+
+The bindings diverge today: each grew its handler API independently, so dispatch order,
+multi-handler resolution, error handling, and what an event exposes are all inconsistent.
+
+| Binding    | Current behavior |
+|------------|------------------|
+| Java       | Only the first matching handler runs; disposition is always continue; a throwing handler propagates and leaves the request blocked; return-value driven; no response handler or managed body collection. |
+| Python     | An explicit `continue` in a handler fires immediately and wins; otherwise staged outcomes reconcile by `fail` > `provide_response` > `continue`; response handlers have no `fail`; dispatch is FIFO; a throwing handler's staged mutations are still sent; only the mutated event is visible; body is not collected behind the handler. |
+| Ruby       | Handlers run in parallel threads, so multi-handler disposition races; exceptions are logged; dispatch is FIFO with no default-continue; only the mutated event is visible; body collection is user-managed. |
+| .NET       | No request or response handler API. |
+| JavaScript | No request or response handler API. |
+
+## Decision
+
+A network handler is registered either to **observe** or to **intercept**, and the event object it
+receives enforces the difference (behavior 1). For intercept handlers, Selenium consults them one at
+a time and lets each dispose of the event as it runs: the first handler to specify a disposition
+(fail, respond, or submit) resolves the event and stops the chain, while a handler that only stages
+mutations passes the event to the next one. Selenium does not gather every handler's outcome and
+reconcile it at the end. The behaviors below apply to request and response handlers, but not
+authentication handlers, since authentication should not use a callable.
+
+Note that there are multiple ways to implement these behaviors; the code examples are one
+option in one language, and represent user-facing code.
+
+1. **A handler is added to observe or to intercept, and the event object it receives enforces
+   which.** There is one method to add handlers, and which mode the handler operates under is decided
+   at creation; intercepting is the default and observing is opt-in. An observing handler receives a
+   read-only event object: it can read the event but has no methods to mutate or settle it, and it
+   does not pause
+   network traffic. An intercepting handler receives a mutable event object: it can stage changes and
+   settle the event, and network traffic is paused until handling resolves it. Because the object's
+   type carries the difference — a read-only object simply has no mutate-or-settle methods — nothing
+   has to introspect the callable to tell the modes apart.
+   * How a binding lets the user pick the mode — a keyword argument, an options object, an overload —
+     is its own idiom; what is fixed is that it is the same method, not a separate observe one.
+
+```ruby
+# Same method, two modes; the event object handed to the block differs
+network.add_request_handler { |r| r.fail if something }         # intercept: mutable, blocking
+network.add_request_handler(observe: true) { |r| log(r.url) }   # observe: read-only, non-blocking
+
+# An observed event object has no mutation methods, so trying to mutate raises
+network.add_request_handler(observe: true) { |r| r.fail }       # raises: observed events are read-only
+```
+
+2. **An intercept handler can specify event disposition.** Allow the user to specify how the event is disposed of
+   by acting on the object provided to the callable.
+   * Playwright only intercepts requests and requires an explicit disposition: continue (stop
+     processing other handlers), fulfill (respond with a mock), abort (respond with an error),
+     fallback (process other handlers, if any).
+   * Selenium supports:
+     * Request: `fail` (Playwright's `abort`, BiDi's `FailRequest`), `respond` (Playwright's `fulfill`, BiDi's `ProvideResponse`), and `submit` (Playwright's `continue`, BiDi's `ContinueRequest`).
+     * Response: `fail` (BiDi's `FailRequest`), and `submit`: note that since we don't need to prevent a round trip from a request, whether this is a BiDi `ContinueResponse` or `ProvideResponse` can be an implementation detail based on whether a replacement body value is provided.
+
+```ruby
+# Specifics of parameters and names can match spec details
+network.add_request_handler { |r| r.fail if something }
+network.add_request_handler { |r| r.respond(content: mocked_response) if something }
+network.add_request_handler { |r| r.add_header("X-Test", true) && r.submit if something }
+
+network.add_response_handler { |r| r.fail if something }
+network.add_response_handler { |r| r.submit(content: mocked_response) if something }
+network.add_response_handler { |r| r.add_header("X-Test", true) && r.submit if something }
+```
+
+3. **Default disposition is to process other handlers.** If a handler does not specify the
+   disposition, the original event and any staged mutations pass to the next handler. If no
+   handler ever specifies one, the event proceeds with the staged mutations.
+   * In Playwright request interception there is no default; the user must specify fallback if
+     that is the intent.
+
+```ruby
+# All of these stage a change and pass to the next handler
+network.add_request_handler { |r| r.add_header("X-Test", true) }
+network.add_request_handler { |r| r.remove_header("upgrade-insecure-requests") }
+network.add_request_handler { |r| r.content = r.request.content.gsub("a", "b") }
+```
+
+4. **Later-registered handlers are consulted first.** Registering an additional handler can
+   mutate the state used by previously registered ones.
+   * Matches Playwright's Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) behavior.
+   * Allows users to locally override handlers set by a shared library or suite.
+   * The alternative is being stuck with the top-level behavior everywhere, or not being able to
+     set top-level defaults at all.
+
+```ruby
+# Header will be there because removal is attempted before it is added
+network.add_request_handler { |r| r.add_header("X-Test", true) }
+network.add_request_handler { |r| r.remove_header("X-Test") }
+```
+
+5. **An uncaught exception discards the handler's staged changes; it propagates for an intercept
+   handler and is logged for an observe handler.** Either way the event keeps flowing as if that
+   handler had not run, so one broken handler cannot corrupt live traffic or stall the page. The
+   difference is visibility: an intercept handler expresses the test's intent, so a failure in it
+   surfaces to the user; an observe handler is passive monitoring, so an incidental failure (a
+   third-party beacon, an analytics call) is logged and never fails the test.
+   * In Playwright every uncaught exception ends the session; routing by mode keeps interception
+     strict without coupling the test to errors from the open internet it never meant to assert on.
+
+```ruby
+# Intercept: the error surfaces; the header addition from the other handler still applies
+network.add_request_handler { |r| r.add_header("X-Test", true) }
+network.add_request_handler { |r| raise Exception }
+
+# Observe: the error is logged, the test is unaffected
+network.add_request_handler(observe: true) { |r| raise Exception }
+```
+
+6. **Return values within the callables are ignored.** No meaning will ever be applied to
+   anything a user explicitly or implicitly returns within the callable.
+   * Playwright also does this, as does Selenium's current Python implementation.
+
+```ruby
+# Ruby: this implicit return value is ignored
+network.add_request_handler { |r| r.add_header("X-Test", true); "this value is ignored" }
+```
+
+```python
+# Python: this explicit return value is ignored
+def handler(r):
+    r.add_header("X-Test", True)
+    return "this value is ignored"
+
+driver.network.add_request_handler(handler)
+```
+
+7. **A handler has access to the original event value.** It may see the changes staged by
+   handlers already executed, but can also read the unmodified event value.
+   * Even when intercepting and mutating, a conditional can be evaluated against the original value
+     rather than the version a prior handler changed.
+   * Playwright uses a completely separate mechanism to differentiate observation from mutation,
+     so it does not need to address this.
+
+```ruby
+# Nothing gets raised
+network.add_request_handler { |r| raise unless r.headers.include?("X-Test") }
+network.add_request_handler { |r| raise if r.request.headers.include?("X-Test") }
+network.add_request_handler { |r| r.add_header("X-Test", true) }
+```
+
+8. **Body data is collected only when the handler opts in at registration.** A body is not
+   available by default; the handler declares that it needs the body when it is registered — not
+   from inside the callback, since the collector must be in place before the event — and Selenium
+   then owns the collector's lifecycle, size cap, and browser-support quirks. The body is readable
+   on the event inside that handler.
+  * The user never calls `addDataCollector` / `getData` or tears a collector down.
+  * There is no way to collect or read body data outside a handler; collection happens only
+    through `add_x_handler`.
+  * Playwright exposes bodies through its response object without a user-managed collector;
+    Selenium does the same, owning the collector behind the handler.
+
+```ruby
+# Declare body collection at registration; the body is then available on the event
+network.add_response_handler(collect_body: true) { |r| log(r.body) }
+```
+
+## Considered options
+
+- **Modes (behavior 1).**
+    - We could give observation its own method, separate from interception, but both modes share the
+      same registration shape (URL patterns, body opt-in, the removal handle), so a separate method
+      duplicates the whole surface; and the read-only contract cannot be enforced by the method
+      anyway — we will not introspect the callable — so the event object's type carries it and the
+      method stays the same.
+    - We could make every handler an interception and add read-only observation later, but routing
+      observation through interception pauses traffic and perturbs what it records (cache behavior,
+      timing), so observation-only is worth providing as its own option now, not deferred.
+- **Reconciliation (behaviors 2 & 3).** 
+  - We could run every handler and reconcile by a fixed priority (fail > stub > continue). But
+    this prevents a user from exercising the `continueRequest` behavior from a specific
+    handler, so all mutations from all handlers would be applied by default.
+  - We could run every handler but have `continueRequest` override failures and stubs (current
+    Python behavior), but it is not obvious why that command should have precedence.
+- **Verb names (behavior 2).**
+  - We could follow Playwright's (abort / fulfill / continue / fallback).
+  - We could follow BiDi's more explicitly (failRequest / provideResponse / continueRequest / continueResponse).
+- **Explicit disposition (3).**
+    - We could require the user to specify fallback explicitly like Playwright does.
+- **Ordering (behavior 4).**
+    - We could run in order of handler registration, but this prevents users from overriding global settings locally.
+- **Failure (5).**
+    - We could propagate the uncaught exception to end the session like Playwright does, but this
+      puts a larger burden on the users to manage network issues and bugs that aren't part of a
+      test. This is likely to be a bigger issue if we intercept every event by default.
+    - We could log every handler's exception regardless of mode, but an intercept handler's failure
+      is the test's own bug and should not be swallowed.
+- **Return values (6).**
+    - We could have the return values set state for the event or handler rather than storing it in
+      the event wrapper object we provide, but this is not as straightforward in all languages
+      and adds additional complications.
+- **Original access (7).**
+    - We could only expose the modified event, or only the original, instead of both.
+    - We could provide a separate observation API like Playwright, but even when mutating it could
+      make sense to evaluate a conditional from the original event rather than the mutated one.
+- **Data collection (8).**
+    - We could collect every body always, but bodies are large and most handlers never read them,
+      so collection is opt-in at registration instead.
+    - We could require the user to manage the data collector directly through the low-level
+      commands, but collection has no meaning outside a handler and would push lifecycle,
+      size-cap, and browser-support bookkeeping onto the user.
+
+## Consequences
+
+- Client code can override shared handlers locally and resolve a request its own way, a broken
+  handler stays contained, and the original event remains readable.
+- This changes handler behavior that several bindings already ship, so it is not backwards
+  compatible.