Tower is a library of modular and reusable components for building robust networking clients and servers. At its core is the Service trait. A Service is an asynchronous function that takes a request and produces a response. However, some aspects of its design may not be immediately obvious. Rather than explaining the Service trait as it exists in Tower today, let's look at the motivation behind Service by imagining how you might invent it if you started from scratch.

Imagine you are building a little HTTP framework in Rust. The framework would allow users to implement an HTTP server by supplying code that receives requests and replies with some response.

You might have an API like this:

// Create a server that listens on port 3000
let server = Server::new("127.0.0.1:3000").await?;

// Somehow run the user's application
server.run(the_users_application).await?;

The question is, what should the_users_application be?

The simplest thing that just might work is:

fn handle_request(request: HttpRequest) -> HttpResponse {
    // ...
}

Where HttpRequest and HttpResponse are some structs provided by our framework.

With this, we can implement Server::run like so:

impl Server {
    async fn run<F>(self, handler: F) -> Result<(), Error>
    where
        F: Fn(HttpRequest) -> HttpResponse,
    {
        let listener = TcpListener::bind(self.addr).await?;

        loop {
            let mut connection = listener.accept().await?;
            let request = read_http_request(&mut connection).await?;

            task::spawn(async move {
                // Call the handler provided by the user
                let response = handler(request);

                write_http_response(connection, response).await?;
            });
        }
    }
}

Here, we have an asynchronous function run which takes a closure that accepts an HttpRequest and returns an HttpResponse.

That means users can use our Server like so:

fn handle_request(request: HttpRequest) -> HttpResponse {
    if request.path() == "/" {
        HttpResponse::ok("Hello, World!")
    } else {
        HttpResponse::not_found()
    }
}

// Run the server and handle requests using our `handle_request` function
server.run(handle_request).await?;

This is not bad. It makes it easy for users to run HTTP servers without worrying about any of the low level details.

However, our current design has one issue: we cannot handle requests asynchronously. Imagine our user needs to query a database or send a request to some other server while handling the request. Currently, that would require blocking while we wait for the handler to produce a response. If we want our server to be able to handle a large number of concurrent connections, we need to be able to serve other requests while we wait for that request to complete asynchronously. Let's fix this by having the handler function return a future:

impl Server {
    async fn run<F, Fut>(self, handler: F) -> Result<(), Error>
    where
        // `handler` now returns a generic type `Fut`...
        F: Fn(HttpRequest) -> Fut,
        // ...which is a `Future` whose `Output` is an `HttpResponse`
        Fut: Future<Output = HttpResponse>,
    {
        let listener = TcpListener::bind(self.addr).await?;

        loop {
            let mut connection = listener.accept().await?;
            let request = read_http_request(&mut connection).await?;

            task::spawn(async move {
                // Await the future returned by `handler`
                let response = handler(request).await;

                write_http_response(connection, response).await?;
            });
        }
    }
}

Using this API is very similar to before:

// Now an async function
async fn handle_request(request: HttpRequest) -> HttpResponse {
    if request.path() == "/" {
        HttpResponse::ok("Hello, World!")
    } else if request.path() == "/important-data" {
        // We can now do async stuff in here
        let some_data = fetch_data_from_database().await;
        make_response(some_data)
    } else {
        HttpResponse::not_found()
    }
}

// Running the server is the same
server.run(handle_request).await?;

This is much nicer, since our request handling can now call other async functions. However, there is still something missing. What if our handler encounters an error and cannot produce a response? Let's make it return a Result:

impl Server {
    async fn run<F, Fut>(self, handler: F) -> Result<(), Error>
    where
        F: Fn(HttpRequest) -> Fut,
        // The response future is now allowed to fail
        Fut: Future<Output = Result<HttpResponse, Error>>,
    {
        let listener = TcpListener::bind(self.addr).await?;

        loop {
            let mut connection = listener.accept().await?;
            let request = read_http_request(&mut connection).await?;

            task::spawn(async move {
                // Pattern match on the result of the response future
                match handler(request).await {
                    Ok(response) => write_http_response(connection, response).await?,
                    Err(error) => handle_error_somehow(error, connection),
                }
            });
        }
    }
}

Adding more behavior

Now, suppose we want to ensure that all requests complete in a timely manner or fail, rather than keeping the client waiting indefinitely for a response that may never arrive. We can do this by adding a timeout to each request. A timeout sets a limit on the maximum duration the handler is allowed to take. If it doesn't produce a response within that amount of time, an error is returned. This allows the client to retry that request or report an error to the user, rather than waiting forever.

Your first idea might be to modify Server so that it can be configured with a timeout. It would then apply that timeout every time it calls handler. However, it turns out you can actually add a timeout without modifying Server. Using tokio::time::timeout, we can make a new handler function that calls our previous handle_request, but with a timeout of 30 seconds:

async fn handler_with_timeout(request: HttpRequest) -> Result<HttpResponse, Error> {
    let result = tokio::time::timeout(
        Duration::from_secs(30),
        handle_request(request)
    ).await;

    match result {
        Ok(Ok(response)) => Ok(response),
        Ok(Err(error)) => Err(error),
        Err(_timeout_elapsed) => Err(Error::timeout()),
    }
}

This provides a quite nice separation of concerns. We were able to add a timeout without changing any of our existing code.

Let's add one more feature in this way. Imagine we're building a JSON API and would therefore like a Content-Type: application/json header on all responses. We can wrap handler_with_timeout in a similar way, and modify the response like so:

async fn handler_with_timeout_and_content_type(
    request: HttpRequest,
) -> Result<HttpResponse, Error> {
    let mut response = handler_with_timeout(request).await?;
    response.set_header("Content-Type", "application/json");
    Ok(response)
}

We now have a handler that will process an HTTP request, take no longer than 30 seconds, and always have the right Content-Type header, all without modifying our original handle_request function or Server struct.

Designing libraries that can be extended in this way is very powerful, since it allows users to extend the library's functionality by layering in new behavior, without having to wait for the library maintainers to add support for it.

It also makes testing easier, since you can break your code into small isolated units and write fine-grained tests for them, without worrying about all the other pieces.

However, there is one problem. Our current design lets us compose new behavior by wrapping a handler function in a new handler function that implements the behavior and then calls the inner function. This works, but it doesn't scale very well if we want to add lots of additional functionality. Imagine we have many handle_with_* functions that each add a little bit new of behavior. Having to hard-code the chain of which intermediate handler calls which will become challenging. Our current chain is

1. handler_with_timeout_and_content_type which calls
2. handler_with_timeout which calls
3. handle_request which actually processes the request

It would be nice if we could somehow compose these three functions without having to hard-code the exact order. Something like:

let final_handler = with_content_type(with_timeout(handle_request));

While still being able to run our handler like before:

server.run(final_handler).await?;

You could try and implement with_content_type and with_timeout as functions that took an argument of type F: Fn(HttpRequest) -> Future<Output = Result<HttpResponse, Error>> and returned a closure like impl Fn(HttpRequest) -> impl Future<Output = Result<HttpResponse, Error>> but that actually isn't possible due to limitations in where Rust allows impl Trait today. Specifically impl Fn() -> impl Future is not allowed. Using Box would be possible but that has a performance cost we would like to avoid.

You also wouldn't be able to add other behavior to your handlers besides calling them but why thats necessary is something we'll get back to.

The Handler trait

Let's try another approach. Rather than Server::run accepting a closure (Fn(HttpRequest) -> ...), let's make a new trait that encapsulates the same async fn(HttpRequest) -> Result<HttpResponse, Error>:

trait Handler {
    async fn call(&mut self, request: HttpRequest) -> Result<HttpResponse, Error>;
}

Having a trait like this allows us to write concrete types that implement it, so we don't have to deal with Fns all the time.

However, Rust currently doesn't support async trait methods, so we have two options:

1. Make call return a boxed future like Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = Result<HttpResponse, Error>>>. This is what the async-trait crate does.
2. Add an associated type Future to Handler so users get to pick their own type.

Let's go with option two, as it's the most flexible. Users who have a concrete future type can use that without the cost of a Box, and users who don't care can still use Pin<Box<...>>.

trait Handler {
    type Future: Future<Output = Result<HttpResponse, Error>>;

    fn call(&mut self, request: HttpRequest) -> Self::Future;
}

We still have to require that Handler::Future implements Future with the output type Result<HttpResponse, Error>, as that is what Server::run requires.

Having call take &mut self is useful because it allows handlers to update their internal state if necessary¹.

Let's convert our original handle_request function into an implementation of this trait:

struct RequestHandler;

impl Handler for RequestHandler {
    // We use `Pin<Box<...>>` here for simplicity, but could also define our
    // own `Future` type to avoid the overhead
    type Future = Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = Result<HttpResponse, Error>>>>;

    fn call(&mut self, request: HttpRequest) -> Self::Future {
        Box::pin(async move {
            // same implementation as we had before
            if request.path() == "/" {
                Ok(HttpResponse::ok("Hello, World!"))
            } else if request.path() == "/important-data" {
                let some_data = fetch_data_from_database().await?;
                Ok(make_response(some_data))
            } else {
                Ok(HttpResponse::not_found())
            }
        })
    }
}

How about supporting timeouts? Remember, the solution we're aiming for is one that allows us to combine different pieces of functionality together without having to modify each individual piece.

What if we defined a generic Timeout struct like this:

struct Timeout<T> {
    // T will be some type that implements `Handler`
    inner_handler: T,
    duration: Duration,
}

We could then implement Handler for Timeout<T> and delegate to T's Handler implementation:

impl<T> Handler for Timeout<T>
where
    T: Handler,
{
    type Future = Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = Result<HttpResponse, Error>>>>;

    fn call(&mut self, request: HttpRequest) -> Self::Future {
        Box::pin(async move {
            let result = tokio::time::timeout(
                self.duration,
                self.inner_handler.call(request),
            ).await;

            match result {
                Ok(Ok(response)) => Ok(response),
                Ok(Err(error)) => Err(error),
                Err(_timeout) => Err(Error::timeout()),
            }
        })
    }
}

The important line here is self.inner_handler.call(request). This is where we delegate to the inner handler and let it do its thing. We don't know what it is, we just know that it produces a Result<HttpResponse, Error> when its done.

This code doesn't quite compile though. We get an error like this:

error[E0759]: `self` has an anonymous lifetime `'_` but it needs to satisfy a `'static` lifetime requirement
   --> src/lib.rs:145:29
    |
144 |       fn call(&mut self, request: HttpRequest) -> Self::Future {
    |               --------- this data with an anonymous lifetime `'_`...
145 |           Box::pin(async move {
    |  _____________________________^
146 | |             let result = tokio::time::timeout(
147 | |                 self.duration,
148 | |                 self.inner_handler.call(request),
...   |
155 | |             }
156 | |         })
    | |_________^ ...is captured here, requiring it to live as long as `'static`

The issue is that we're capturing a &mut self and moving it into an async block. That means the lifetime of our future is tied to the lifetime of &mut self. This doesn't work for us, since we might want to run our response futures on multiple threads to get better performance, or produce multiple response futures and run them all in parallel. That isn't possible if a reference to the handler lives inside the futures².

Instead we need to convert the &mut self into an owned self. That is exactly what Clone does:

// this must be `Clone` for `Timeout<T>` to be `Clone`
#[derive(Clone)]
struct RequestHandler;

impl Handler for RequestHandler {
    // ...
}

#[derive(Clone)]
struct Timeout<T> {
    inner_handler: T,
    duration: Duration,
}

impl<T> Handler for Timeout<T>
where
    T: Handler + Clone,
{
    type Future = Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = Result<HttpResponse, Error>>>>;

    fn call(&mut self, request: HttpRequest) -> Self::Future {
        // Get an owned clone of `&mut self`
        let mut this = self.clone();

        Box::pin(async move {
            let result = tokio::time::timeout(
                this.duration,
                this.inner_handler.call(request),
            ).await;

            match result {
                Ok(Ok(response)) => Ok(response),
                Ok(Err(error)) => Err(error),
                Err(_timeout) => Err(Error::timeout()),
            }
        })
    }
}

Note that cloning is very cheap in this case, since RequestHandler doesn't have any data and Timeout<T> only adds a Duration (which is Copy).

One step closer. We now get a different error:

error[E0310]: the parameter type `T` may not live long enough
   --> src/lib.rs:149:9
    |
140 |   impl<T> Handler for Timeout<T>
    |        - help: consider adding an explicit lifetime bound...: `T: 'static`
...
149 | /         Box::pin(async move {
150 | |             let result = tokio::time::timeout(
151 | |                 this.duration,
152 | |                 this.inner_handler.call(request),
...   |
159 | |             }
160 | |         })
    | |__________^ ...so that the type `impl Future` will meet its required lifetime bounds

The problem now is that T can be any type whatsoever. It can even be a type that contains references, like Vec<&'a str>. However that won't work for the same reason as before. We need the response future to have a 'static lifetime so we can more easily pass it around.

The compiler actually tells us what the fix is. Add T: 'static:

impl<T> Handler for Timeout<T>
where
    T: Handler + Clone + 'static,
{
    // ...
}

The response future now satisfies the 'static lifetime requirement, since it doesn't contain references (and any references T contains are 'static). Now, our code compiles!

Let's create a similar handler struct for adding a Content-Type header on the response:

#[derive(Clone)]
struct JsonContentType<T> {
    inner_handler: T,
}

impl<T> Handler for JsonContentType<T>
where
    T: Handler + Clone + 'static,
{
    type Future = Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = Result<HttpResponse, Error>>>>;

    fn call(&mut self, request: HttpRequest) -> Self::Future {
        let mut this = self.clone();

        Box::pin(async move {
            let mut response = this.inner_handler.call(request).await?;
            response.set_header("Content-Type", "application/json");
            Ok(response)
        })
    }
}

Notice this follows a very similar pattern to Timeout.

Next up we modify Server::run to accept our new Handler trait:

impl Server {
    async fn run<T>(self, mut handler: T) -> Result<(), Error>
    where
        T: Handler,
    {
        let listener = TcpListener::bind(self.addr).await?;

        loop {
            let mut connection = listener.accept().await?;
            let request = read_http_request(&mut connection).await?;

            task::spawn(async move {
                // have to call `Handler::call` here
                match handler.call(request).await {
                    Ok(response) => write_http_response(connection, response).await?,
                    Err(error) => handle_error_somehow(error, connection),
                }
            });
        }
    }
}

We can now compose our three handlers together:

JsonContentType {
    inner_handler: Timeout {
        inner_handler: RequestHandler,
        duration: Duration::from_secs(30),
    },
}

And if we add some new methods to our types, they become a little easier to compose:

let handler = RequestHandler;
let handler = Timeout::new(handler, Duration::from_secs(30));
let handler = JsonContentType::new(handler);

// `handler` has type `JsonContentType<Timeout<RequestHandler>>`

server.run(handler).await

This works quite well! We're now able to layer on additional functionality to RequestHandler without having to modify its implementation. In theory, we could put our JsonContentType and Timeout handlers into a crate and release it as library on crates.io for other people to use!

Making Handler more flexible

Our little Handler trait is working quite nicely, but currently it only supports our HttpRequest and HttpResponse types. It would be nice if those were generic, so users could use whatever type they want.

We make the request a generic type parameter of the trait so that a given service can accept many different types of requests. That allows defining handlers that can be used for different protocols instead of only HTTP. We make response an associated type because for any given request type, there can only be one (associated) response type: the one the corresponding call returns!

trait Handler<Request> {
    type Response;

    // Error should also be an associated type. No reason for that to be a
    // hardcoded type
    type Error;

    // Our future type from before, but now it's output must use
    // the associated `Response` and `Error` types
    type Future: Future<Output = Result<Self::Response, Self::Error>>;

    // `call` is unchanged, but note that `Request` here is our generic
    // `Request` type parameter and not the `HttpRequest` type we've used
    // until now
    fn call(&mut self, request: Request) -> Self::Future;
}

Our implementation for RequestHandler now becomes

impl Handler<HttpRequest> for RequestHandler {
    type Response = HttpResponse;
    type Error = Error;
    type Future = Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = Result<HttpResponse, Error>>>>;

    fn call(&mut self, request: Request) -> Self::Future {
        // same as before
    }
}

Timeout<T> is a bit different. Since it wraps some other Handler and adds an async timeout, it actually doesn't care about what the request or response types are, as long as the Handler it is wrapping uses the same types.

The Error type is a bit different. Since tokio::time::timeout returns Result<T, tokio::time::error::Elapsed>, we must be able to convert a tokio::time::error::Elapsed into the inner Handler's error type.

If we put all those things together we get

// `Timeout` accepts any request of type `R` as long as `T`
// accepts the same type of request
impl<R, T> Handler<R> for Timeout<T>
where
    // The actual type of request must not contain
    // references. The compiler would tell us to add
    // this if we didn't
    R: 'static,
    // `T` must accept requests of type `R`
    T: Handler<R> + Clone + 'static,
    // We must be able to convert an `Elapsed` into
    // `T`'s error type
    T::Error: From<tokio::time::error::Elapsed>,
{
    // Our response type is the same as `T`'s, since we
    // don't have to modify it
    type Response = T::Response;

    // Error type is also the same
    type Error = T::Error;

    // Future must output a `Result` with the correct types
    type Future = Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = Result<T::Response, T::Error>>>>;

    fn call(&mut self, request: R) -> Self::Future {
        let mut this = self.clone();

        Box::pin(async move {
            let result = tokio::time::timeout(
                this.duration,
                this.inner_handler.call(request),
            ).await;

            match result {
                Ok(Ok(response)) => Ok(response),
                Ok(Err(error)) => Err(error),
                Err(elapsed) => {
                    // Convert the error
                    Err(T::Error::from(elapsed))
                }
            }
        })
    }
}

JsonContentType is a bit different. It doesn't care about the request or error types but it does care about the response type. It must be Response such that we can call set_header.

The implementation therefore is:

// Again a generic request type
impl<R, T> Handler<R> for JsonContentType<T>
where
    R: 'static,
    // `T` must accept requests of any type `R` and return
    // responses of type `HttpResponse`
    T: Handler<R, Response = HttpResponse> + Clone + 'static,
{
    type Response = HttpResponse;

    // Our error type is whatever `T`'s error type is
    type Error = T::Error;

    type Future = Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = Result<Response, T::Error>>>>;

    fn call(&mut self, request: R) -> Self::Future {
        let mut this = self.clone();

        Box::pin(async move {
            let mut response = this.inner_handler.call(request).await?;
            response.set_header("Content-Type", "application/json");
            Ok(response)
        })
    }
}

Finally, the Handler passed to Server::run must use HttpRequest and HttpResponse:

impl Server {
    async fn run<T>(self, mut handler: T) -> Result<(), Error>
    where
        T: Handler<HttpRequest, Response = HttpResponse>,
    {
        // ...
    }
}

Creating the server has not changed:

let handler = RequestHandler;
let handler = Timeout::new(handler, Duration::from_secs(30));
let handler = JsonContentType::new(handler);

server.run(handler).await

So, we now have a Handler trait that makes it possible to break our application up into small independent parts and re-use them. Not bad!

"What if I told you..."

Until now, we've only talked about the server side of things. But, our Handler trait actually fits HTTP clients as well. One can imagine a client Handler that accepts some request and asynchronously sends it to someone on the internet. Our Timeout wrapper is actually useful here as well. JsonContentType probably isn't, since it's not the client's job to set response headers.

Since our Handler trait is useful for defining both servers and clients, Handler probably isn't an appropriate name. A client doesn't handle a request, it sends it to a server and the server handles it. Let's instead call our trait Service:

trait Service<Request> {
    type Response;
    type Error;
    type Future: Future<Output = Result<Self::Response, Self::Error>>;

    fn call(&mut self, request: Request) -> Self::Future;
}

This is actually almost the Service trait defined in Tower. If you've been able to follow along until this point you now understand most of Tower. Besides the Service trait, Tower also provides several utilities that implement Service by wrapping some other type that also implements Service, exactly like we did with Timeout and JsonContentType. These services can be composed in ways similar to what we've done thus far.

Some example services provided by Tower:

• Timeout - This is pretty much identical to the timeout we have built.
• Retry - To automatically retry failed requests.
• RateLimit - To limit the number of requests a service will receive over a period of time.

Types like Timeout and JsonContentType are typically called middleware, since they wrap another Service and transform the request or response in some way. Types like RequestHandler are typically called leaf services, since they sit at the leaves of a tree of nested services. The actual responses are normally produced in leaf services and modified by middleware.

The only thing left to talk about is backpressure and poll_ready.

Backpressure

Imagine you wanted to write a rate limit middleware that wraps a Service and puts a limit on the maximum number of concurrent requests the underlying service will receive. This would be useful if you had some service that had a hard upper limit on the amount of load it could handle.

With our current Service trait, we don't really have a good way to implement something like that. We could try:

impl<R, T> Service<R> for ConcurrencyLimit<T> {
    fn call(&mut self, request: R) -> Self::Future {
        // 1. Check a counter for the number of requests currently being
        //    processed.
        // 2. If there is capacity left send the request to `T`
        //    and increment the counter.
        // 3. If not somehow wait until capacity becomes available.
        // 4. When the response has been produced, decrement the counter.
    }
}

If there is no capacity left, we have to wait and somehow get notified when capacity becomes available. Additionally, we have to keep the request in memory while we're waiting (also called buffering). This means that the more requests that are waiting for capacity, the more memory our program would use --- if more requests are produced than our service can handle, we might run out of memory! It would be more robust to only allocate space for the request when we are sure the service has capacity to handle it. Otherwise, we risk using a lot of memory buffering requests while we wait for our service to become ready.

It would be nice if Service had a method like this:

trait Service<R> {
    async fn ready(&mut self);
}

ready would be an async function that completes when the service has capacity enough to receive one new request. We would then require users to first call service.ready().await before doing service.call(request).await.

Separating "calling the service" from "reserving capacity" also unlocks new use cases, such as being able to maintain a set of "ready services" that we keep up to date in the background, so that when a request arrives we already have a ready service to send it to and don't have to first wait for it to become ready.

With this design, ConcurrencyLimit could track capacity inside ready and not allow users to call call until there is sufficient capacity.

Services that don't care about capacity can just return immediately from ready, or if they wrap some inner Service, they could delegate to its ready method.

However, we still cannot define async functions inside traits. We could add another associated type to Service called ReadyFuture, but having to return a Future will give us the same lifetime issues we've run into before. It would be nice if there was some way around that.

Instead, we can take some inspiration from the Future trait and define a method called poll_ready:

use std::task::{Context, Poll};

trait Service<R> {
    fn poll_ready(&mut self, cx: &mut Context<'_>) -> Poll<()>;
}

This means if the service is out of capacity, poll_ready will return Poll::Pending and notify the caller using the waker from the Context when capacity becomes available. At that point, poll_ready can be called again, and if it returns Poll::Ready(()) then capacity is reserved and call can be called.

Note that there is technically nothing that prevents users from calling call without first making sure the service is ready. However, doing so is considered a violation of the Service API contract, and implementations are allowed to panic if call is called on a service that isn't ready!

poll_ready not returning a Future also means we're able to quickly check if a service is ready without being forced to wait for it to become ready. If we call poll_ready and get back Poll::Pending, we can simply decide to do something else instead of waiting. Among other things, this allows you to build load balancers that estimate the load of services by how often they return Poll::Pending, and send requests to the service with the least load.

It would still be possible get a Future that resolves when capacity is available using something like futures::future::poll_fn (or tower::ServiceExt::ready).

This concept of services communicating with their callers about their capacity is called "backpressure propagation". You can think of it as services pushing back on their callers, and telling them to slow down if they're producing requests too fast. The fundamental idea is that you shouldn't send a request to a service that doesn't have the capacity to handle it. Instead you should wait (buffering), drop the request (load shedding), or handle the lack of capacity in some other way. You can learn more about the general concept of backpressure here and here.

Finally, it might also be possible for some error to happen while reserving capacity, so poll_ready probably should return Poll<Result<(), Self::Error>>. With this change we've now arrived at the complete tower::Service trait:

pub trait Service<Request> {
    type Response;
    type Error;
    type Future: Future<Output = Result<Self::Response, Self::Error>>;

    fn poll_ready(
        &mut self,
        cx: &mut Context<'_>,
    ) -> Poll<Result<(), Self::Error>>;

    fn call(&mut self, req: Request) -> Self::Future;
}

Many middleware don't add their own backpressure, and simply delegate to the wrapped service's poll_ready implementation. However, backpressure in middleware does enable some interesting use cases, such as various kinds of rate limiting, load balancing, and auto scaling.

Since you never know exactly which middleware a Service might consist of, it is important to not forget about poll_ready.

With all this in place, the most common way to call a service is:

use tower::{
    Service,
    // for the `ready` method
    ServiceExt,
};

let response = service
    // wait for the service to have capacity
    .ready().await?
    // send the request
    .call(request).await?;

---

Footnotes

1: There has been some discussion around whether call should take Pin<&mut Self> or not, but so far we've decided to go with a plain &mut self which means handlers (ahem, services) must be Unpin. In practice that is rarely an issue. More details here.

2: To be a bit more precise, the reason this requires the response future to be 'static is that writing Box<dyn Future> actually becomes Box<dyn Future + 'static>, which the anonymous lifetime in fn call(&'_ mut self, ...) doesn't satisfy. In the future, the Rust compiler team plans to add a feature called generic associated types which will let us get around this. Generic associated types will allow us to define the response future as type Future<'a>, and call as fn call<'a>(&'a mut self, ...) -> Self::Future<'a> but for now response futures must be 'static.