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Arjun Vijay Prakash
Arjun Vijay Prakash

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418 I'm a Teapot ๐Ÿซ–

Believe it or not, "418 I'm a Teapot" is a legitimate HTTP status code, although it comes with a twist of humour!

It was originally part of an April Fools' joke ๐Ÿคก by the Internet Engineering Task Force. This status code was introduced in the "Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol" (HTCPCP) in 1998.

๐Ÿšซ What Does It Mean?

This quirky status code indicates that the server refuses to brew coffee because it is, permanently, a teapot. Yes, you read that right โ€“ a teapot!

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๐Ÿค” So what's the practical use?

Well, it's not meant to be implemented seriously by servers.

Despite its humorous origins, some organizations and platforms use it as a fun Easter egg.

Some websites use this response for requests they do not wish to handle, such as automated queries.

A famous example is Google's implementation, which can be found here: https://google.com/teapot

While you may not use 418 in your daily coding, it's a reminder of the lighter side of tech and the importance of humour even in technical standards.

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I hope you found this article helpful โค๏ธ

Happy Coding! ๐Ÿš€
Thanks for 11884! ๐Ÿค—

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Top comments (23)

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern โ€ข

Lol this is great

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arjuncodess profile image
Arjun Vijay Prakash โ€ข

I too had a few great laughs reading about this.

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ptandler profile image
Peter โ€ข

I really love this kind of humor!

In case you're interested: The original IETF proposal is RFC 2324 "Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP/1.0)" where 418 is mentioned in section 2.3.2.

And of course, not to forget RFC 7168 that extends HTCPCP "to allow communication with networked tea production devices and teapots". ๐Ÿ˜„

But honestly, I guess when this was invented, nobody ever thought that someday there are really coffee machines that can be operated over network or bluetooth. Sadly none of them supports HTCPCP...

Funny enough, there are really some open source implementations of HTCPCP, e.g. for Raspberry Pi (together with a programmable power strip), so nothing should stop you to set up your own implementation! ๐Ÿ˜„

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arjuncodess profile image
Arjun Vijay Prakash โ€ข

I really love this kind of humor!

Yay, me too! Thanks for sharing the info, Peter!

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington โ€ข

Loving little odd history nuggets like this! Appreciate ya sharing, Arjun.

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arjuncodess profile image
Arjun Vijay Prakash โ€ข

I appreciate those kind words, Michael!

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ludamillion profile image
Luke Inglis โ€ข

Somewhat related is ISO 3103

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arjuncodess profile image
Arjun Vijay Prakash โ€ข

Oh yea! Thanks for the info.

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moopet profile image
Ben Sinclair โ€ข

I have actually implemented this when I hooked up a 1970s-era Teasmade to the network. It ran a little twitter bot that could tweet its status and handle requests to it to make a drink or change the radio channel.

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arjuncodess profile image
Arjun Vijay Prakash โ€ข

Lmao, I never thought about its use but this is something nice.

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lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr โ€ข

My favorite April-1-RFC remains RFC1925. I implement this each and every day.

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arjuncodess profile image
Arjun Vijay Prakash โ€ข

Well, that's nice. Thanks for the comment by the way!

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kevgathuku profile image
Kevin Gathuku โ€ข

๐Ÿ˜ƒ๐Ÿ˜ƒ๐Ÿซ–

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arjuncodess profile image
Arjun Vijay Prakash โ€ข

Thanks for the reaction btw. It's appreciated!

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hbaxmann profile image
Holger Baxmann โ€ข

AFAIRC was one of the first apps with http at CERN by Tim Berners-Lee the observation of the Coffemachine downstairs ...

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arjuncodess profile image
Arjun Vijay Prakash โ€ข

I appreciate sharing little chits of knowledge, Holger!

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troy5890 profile image
Troy Harris โ€ข

This is golden ๐Ÿคฃ! Thank you for the laugh, I'll keep this status code in mind for some good laughs

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arjuncodess profile image
Arjun Vijay Prakash โ€ข

Haha, yea! I appreciate you writing a comment.

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benajaero profile image
ben ajaero โ€ข

Will definitely have to implement this.

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arjuncodess profile image
Arjun Vijay Prakash โ€ข

Haha, my first thought was this too!

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