HTTP headers / response header

Vary

Vary: Accept-Encoding, Origin

What it does

Tells caches which request headers change the response — each combination gets its own cache entry.

The gotcha

Missing Vary: Origin on CORS responses makes CDNs serve one origin's ACAO header to another origin: intermittent, infuriating CORS failures.

Debugging headers on a phone

The fastest way to see what Vary is actually doing is to send the request and read both sides raw — ReqPad shows auto-generated and custom headers for every request, on all six protocols, with history. Related references: status codes · WWW-Authenticate · Content-Encoding · Transfer-Encoding · ETag · Last-Modified · Expires

Inspect Vary on a live request.

Build the request, send it, read raw headers and timing — from your iPhone. Free to start.