Base Headers

Overview

The base_headers attribute is a dictionary containing standard HTTP headers used for all API requests to Axiom Trade. These headers ensure proper communication with the API and help requests appear as legitimate browser traffic.

Purpose

• Browser Emulation: Makes requests look like they come from a real browser
• CORS Compliance: Ensures proper Cross-Origin Resource Sharing
• Content Negotiation: Specifies accepted response formats
• Request Context: Provides necessary metadata for the API

Type

base_headers: Dict[str, str]

Structure

Default Headers

{
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/135.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
    'Accept': 'application/json, text/plain, */*',
    'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9',
    'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate, br',
    'Origin': 'https://axiom.trade',
    'Connection': 'keep-alive',
    'Referer': 'https://axiom.trade/',
    'sec-fetch-dest': 'empty',
    'sec-fetch-mode': 'cors',
    'sec-fetch-site': 'same-site'
}

Visual Breakdown

base_headers
├─ User-Agent       ─► Browser identification
├─ Accept           ─► Accepted content types
├─ Accept-Language  ─► Preferred languages
├─ Accept-Encoding  ─► Supported compression
├─ Origin           ─► Request origin (CORS)
├─ Connection       ─► Connection persistence
├─ Referer          ─► Previous page URL
└─ sec-fetch-*      ─► Fetch metadata (security)

Headers Explained

User-Agent

'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/135.0.0.0 Safari/537.36'

Purpose: Identifies the client making the request Why Important:

• API servers often check User-Agent to block bots
• Emulates a real Chrome browser on Windows 10
• Helps requests pass anti-bot measures

Format Breakdown:

• Mozilla/5.0 - Standard prefix
• Windows NT 10.0 - Windows 10
• Win64; x64 - 64-bit architecture
• Chrome/135.0.0.0 - Chrome version

Accept

'Accept': 'application/json, text/plain, */*'

Purpose: Tells server what content types the client can handle Values:

• application/json - Primary: JSON responses
• text/plain - Secondary: Plain text
• */* - Fallback: Accept any content type

Accept-Language

'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9'

Purpose: Specifies preferred language(s) Format:

• en-US - American English (priority 1.0)
• en;q=0.9 - Generic English (priority 0.9)

Accept-Encoding

'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate, br'

Purpose: Indicates supported compression algorithms Algorithms:

• gzip - Standard compression
• deflate - Alternative compression
• br - Brotli compression (modern)

Origin

'Origin': 'https://axiom.trade'

Purpose: CORS header indicating request origin Why Important: Required for cross-origin API requests

Connection

'Connection': 'keep-alive'

Purpose: Controls connection persistence Value: keep-alive - Reuse TCP connection for multiple requests

Referer

'Referer': 'https://axiom.trade/'

Purpose: URL of the page that initiated the request Why Important: Some APIs check referer for security

Security Headers (sec-fetch-*)

'sec-fetch-dest': 'empty'
'sec-fetch-mode': 'cors'
'sec-fetch-site': 'same-site'

Purpose: Modern security metadata Values:

• sec-fetch-dest: empty - Not requesting a specific resource type
• sec-fetch-mode: cors - Cross-origin request
• sec-fetch-site: same-site - Same site request

Basic Usage

Example 1: Viewing Base Headers

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

# Initialize client
client = AxiomTradeClient()

# View all base headers
print("Base Headers:")
print("=" * 60)
for key, value in client.base_headers.items():
    print(f"{key:20} : {value[:50]}...")

Output:

Base Headers:
============================================================
User-Agent           : Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWe...
Accept               : application/json, text/plain, */*...
Accept-Language      : en-US,en;q=0.9...
Accept-Encoding      : gzip, deflate, br...
Origin               : https://axiom.trade...
Connection           : keep-alive...
Referer              : https://axiom.trade/...
sec-fetch-dest       : empty...
sec-fetch-mode       : cors...
sec-fetch-site       : same-site...

Example 2: Check Specific Header

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

client = AxiomTradeClient()

# Get specific header
user_agent = client.base_headers.get('User-Agent')
accept = client.base_headers.get('Accept')

print(f"User-Agent: {user_agent}")
print(f"Accept: {accept}")

Example 3: Headers Are Automatically Used

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

client = AxiomTradeClient()
client.login("email@example.com", "password")

# All API calls automatically use base_headers
# You don't need to do anything special!
balance = client.GetBalance("wallet_address")

# Behind the scenes, the client uses base_headers
# combined with authentication headers

Advanced Examples

Example 1: Inspecting Headers in Action

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient
import requests

def show_headers_in_action():
    """Demonstrate how base_headers are used in requests"""

    client = AxiomTradeClient()

    print("Headers Used in API Calls:")
    print("=" * 60)
    print("\n1. Base Headers (Standard):")
    for key, value in client.base_headers.items():
        print(f"   {key}: {value[:40]}...")

    print("\n2. Additional Headers (Authentication):")
    print("   - Authorization: Bearer <token>")
    print("   - Content-Type: application/json")
    print("   - Cookie: auth-access-token=<token>")

    print("\n3. Combined Headers (Actual Request):")
    print("   Base Headers + Auth Headers = Complete Request")

show_headers_in_action()

Example 2: Custom Request with Base Headers

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient
import requests

def make_custom_request_with_base_headers():
    """Make a custom API request using base_headers"""

    client = AxiomTradeClient()
    client.login("email@example.com", "password")

    # Get base headers
    headers = client.base_headers.copy()

    # Add custom headers
    headers.update({
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'Authorization': f'Bearer {client.access_token}'
    })

    # Make custom request
    response = requests.post(
        'https://axiom.trade/api/some-endpoint',
        headers=headers,
        json={'key': 'value'}
    )

    print(f"Status: {response.status_code}")
    return response

# Usage
response = make_custom_request_with_base_headers()

Example 3: Debugging Request Headers

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient
import json

class HeaderDebugger:
    """Debug and analyze HTTP headers"""

    def __init__(self):
        self.client = AxiomTradeClient()

    def analyze_headers(self):
        """Analyze all headers"""
        print("Header Analysis")
        print("=" * 60)

        headers = self.client.base_headers

        # Browser identification
        print("\nBrowser Identification:")
        print(f"   User-Agent: {headers.get('User-Agent')}")

        # Content negotiation
        print("\nContent Negotiation:")
        print(f"   Accept: {headers.get('Accept')}")
        print(f"   Accept-Language: {headers.get('Accept-Language')}")
        print(f"   Accept-Encoding: {headers.get('Accept-Encoding')}")

        # CORS headers
        print("\nCORS Headers:")
        print(f"   Origin: {headers.get('Origin')}")
        print(f"   Referer: {headers.get('Referer')}")

        # Security headers
        print("\nSecurity Headers:")
        for key in headers:
            if key.startswith('sec-'):
                print(f"   {key}: {headers[key]}")

        # Connection
        print("\nConnection:")
        print(f"   Connection: {headers.get('Connection')}")

    def validate_headers(self):
        """Validate headers are properly set"""
        headers = self.client.base_headers
        required = ['User-Agent', 'Accept', 'Origin']

        print("\nHeader Validation:")
        for header in required:
            if header in headers and headers[header]:
                print(f"   OK {header}: Present")
            else:
                print(f"   MISSING {header}!")

    def compare_with_browser(self):
        """Compare with real browser headers"""
        headers = self.client.base_headers

        print("\nBrowser Compatibility:")

        # Check User-Agent
        ua = headers.get('User-Agent', '')
        if 'Chrome' in ua:
            print("   Emulates Chrome browser")
        elif 'Firefox' in ua:
            print("   Emulates Firefox browser")
        else:
            print("   Unknown browser emulation")

        # Check modern headers
        modern_headers = ['sec-fetch-dest', 'sec-fetch-mode', 'sec-fetch-site']
        has_modern = all(h in headers for h in modern_headers)

        if has_modern:
            print("   Includes modern security headers")
        else:
            print("   Missing modern security headers")

        # Check compression
        encoding = headers.get('Accept-Encoding', '')
        if 'br' in encoding:
            print("   Supports Brotli compression")
        if 'gzip' in encoding:
            print("   Supports GZIP compression")

# Usage
debugger = HeaderDebugger()
debugger.analyze_headers()
debugger.validate_headers()
debugger.compare_with_browser()

Example 4: Header Comparison Tool

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

def compare_headers():
    """Compare client headers with ideal headers"""

    client = AxiomTradeClient()

    # Recommended headers for best compatibility
    recommended = {
        'User-Agent': 'Should contain browser info',
        'Accept': 'Should accept JSON',
        'Origin': 'Should match API domain',
        'Referer': 'Should match website',
        'Connection': 'Should be keep-alive',
        'Accept-Encoding': 'Should include gzip, br'
    }

    print("Header Comparison Report")
    print("=" * 60)

    for key, requirement in recommended.items():
        actual = client.base_headers.get(key, 'NOT SET')

        # Check if requirement is met
        status = "OK" if actual != 'NOT SET' else "MISSING"

        print(f"\n{key}:")
        print(f"   Status: {status}")
        print(f"   Requirement: {requirement}")
        print(f"   Actual: {actual[:50]}..." if len(str(actual)) > 50 else f"   Actual: {actual}")

compare_headers()

Customization

Adding Custom Headers

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

client = AxiomTradeClient()

# Add a custom header
client.base_headers['X-Custom-Header'] = 'MyValue'

# Add multiple custom headers
client.base_headers.update({
    'X-Api-Version': '1.0',
    'X-Client-ID': 'my-trading-bot',
    'X-Request-ID': '12345'
})

print("Updated headers:")
for key, value in client.base_headers.items():
    print(f"  {key}: {value}")

Modifying Existing Headers

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

client = AxiomTradeClient()

# Change User-Agent
client.base_headers['User-Agent'] = 'MyCustomBot/1.0'

# Change Accept
client.base_headers['Accept'] = 'application/json'

# Change language preference
client.base_headers['Accept-Language'] = 'es-ES,es;q=0.9'

print("Modified headers:")
print(f"User-Agent: {client.base_headers['User-Agent']}")
print(f"Accept-Language: {client.base_headers['Accept-Language']}")

Removing Headers

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

client = AxiomTradeClient()

# Remove a header (not recommended for base headers)
if 'Referer' in client.base_headers:
    del client.base_headers['Referer']
    print("Removed Referer header")

# Pop a header
removed_value = client.base_headers.pop('Accept-Language', None)
print(f"Removed Accept-Language: {removed_value}")

Warning: Removing default headers may cause API requests to fail.

Creating Custom Header Profiles

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

class CustomHeaderProfiles:
    """Predefined header profiles for different scenarios"""

    @staticmethod
    def chrome_windows():
        """Chrome on Windows"""
        return {
            'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/135.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
            'Accept': 'application/json, text/plain, */*',
            'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9',
            'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate, br',
            'Origin': 'https://axiom.trade',
            'Connection': 'keep-alive',
            'Referer': 'https://axiom.trade/'
        }

    @staticmethod
    def firefox_linux():
        """Firefox on Linux"""
        return {
            'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:140.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/140.0',
            'Accept': 'application/json, text/plain, */*',
            'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.5',
            'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate, br',
            'Origin': 'https://axiom.trade',
            'Connection': 'keep-alive',
            'Referer': 'https://axiom.trade/'
        }

    @staticmethod
    def safari_mac():
        """Safari on macOS"""
        return {
            'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/17.2 Safari/605.1.15',
            'Accept': 'application/json, text/plain, */*',
            'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9',
            'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate, br',
            'Origin': 'https://axiom.trade',
            'Connection': 'keep-alive',
            'Referer': 'https://axiom.trade/'
        }

# Usage
client = AxiomTradeClient()

# Apply Firefox profile
client.base_headers = CustomHeaderProfiles.firefox_linux()
print(f"Using Firefox profile: {client.base_headers['User-Agent']}")

# Apply Safari profile
client.base_headers = CustomHeaderProfiles.safari_mac()
print(f"Using Safari profile: {client.base_headers['User-Agent']}")

Best Practices

Do

1. Keep Default Headers

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

client = AxiomTradeClient()

# GOOD - Use default headers
# They're optimized for the API
balance = client.GetBalance("wallet")

2. Add Headers, Don’t Replace

# GOOD - Add to existing headers
client.base_headers.update({
    'X-Custom-Header': 'value'
})

# BAD - Replace all headers
client.base_headers = {'User-Agent': 'MyBot'}  # Missing required headers!

3. Copy Before Modifying

# GOOD - Copy before modifying
custom_headers = client.base_headers.copy()
custom_headers['X-Custom'] = 'value'

# Use custom_headers for special requests
# Original base_headers unchanged

4. Validate After Changes

def validate_headers(headers: dict):
    """Validate required headers are present"""
    required = ['User-Agent', 'Accept', 'Origin']

    for header in required:
        if header not in headers:
            print(f"Missing required header: {header}")
            return False
    return True

# GOOD - Validate after changes
client.base_headers['X-Custom'] = 'value'
if validate_headers(client.base_headers):
    print("Headers valid")

Don’t

1. Don’t Remove Required Headers

# BAD - Removes required header
del client.base_headers['User-Agent']  # API may reject requests!

2. Don’t Use Invalid Values

# BAD - Invalid values
client.base_headers['Accept'] = 'invalid/type'
client.base_headers['Origin'] = 'not-a-url'

3. Don’t Expose Sensitive Data in Headers

# BAD - Sensitive data in custom headers
client.base_headers['X-Password'] = 'mysecret'  # Never do this!
client.base_headers['X-Token'] = 'mytoken'      # Use Authorization header

4. Don’t Log Full Headers in Production

# BAD - May expose sensitive info
print(f"Headers: {client.base_headers}")  # Could contain auth data

# GOOD - Log selectively
print(f"User-Agent: {client.base_headers.get('User-Agent')}")

Common Issues

Issue 1: “403 Forbidden” Errors

Cause: Missing or invalid headers

Solution:

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

client = AxiomTradeClient()

# Verify all required headers are present
required = ['User-Agent', 'Origin', 'Referer']
missing = [h for h in required if h not in client.base_headers]

if missing:
    print(f"Missing headers: {missing}")
    # Restore defaults
    client = AxiomTradeClient()  # Recreate client
else:
    print("All required headers present")

Issue 2: Modified Headers Causing Failures

Cause: Accidentally modified critical headers

Solution:

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

# Save original headers
client = AxiomTradeClient()
original_headers = client.base_headers.copy()

# If something goes wrong, restore
def restore_headers():
    client.base_headers = original_headers.copy()
    print("Headers restored to defaults")

# Test after modifications
try:
    balance = client.GetBalance("wallet")
except Exception as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")
    restore_headers()

Issue 3: Headers Not Applied to Requests

Cause: Using wrong method to make requests

Solution:

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

client = AxiomTradeClient()

# CORRECT - Use client methods (headers applied automatically)
balance = client.GetBalance("wallet")

# WRONG - Direct requests won't use client headers
import requests
response = requests.get("https://axiom.trade/api/endpoint")  # No headers!

# CORRECT - If making custom requests, use base_headers
import requests
headers = client.base_headers.copy()
response = requests.get("https://axiom.trade/api/endpoint", headers=headers)

Issue 4: “Invalid Header Value” Errors

Cause: Header value contains invalid characters

Solution:

def sanitize_header_value(value: str) -> str:
    """Remove invalid characters from header value"""
    # Headers can't contain newlines or special chars
    return value.replace('\n', '').replace('\r', '').strip()

# GOOD - Sanitize custom values
client.base_headers['X-Custom'] = sanitize_header_value(user_input)

Issue 5: Debugging Header Problems

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient
import json

def debug_headers():
    """Comprehensive header debugging"""
    client = AxiomTradeClient()

    print("Header Debug Report")
    print("=" * 60)

    # 1. Check all headers present
    print("\n1. All Headers:")
    print(json.dumps(client.base_headers, indent=2))

    # 2. Check required headers
    required = ['User-Agent', 'Accept', 'Origin']
    print("\n2. Required Headers Check:")
    for header in required:
        status = "OK" if header in client.base_headers else "MISSING"
        print(f"   {status} {header}")

    # 3. Check header values
    print("\n3. Header Value Check:")
    for key, value in client.base_headers.items():
        if not value:
            print(f"   WARNING {key}: Empty value!")
        elif '\n' in value or '\r' in value:
            print(f"   WARNING {key}: Contains newlines!")
        else:
            print(f"   OK {key}")

    # 4. Check header size
    header_size = sum(len(k) + len(v) for k, v in client.base_headers.items())
    print(f"\n4. Total Header Size: {header_size} bytes")
    if header_size > 8192:
        print("   WARNING: Headers exceed recommended size (8KB)")
    else:
        print("   Header size OK")

debug_headers()

Related Topics

Authentication Headers

The base_headers work in conjunction with authentication headers:

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

client = AxiomTradeClient()
client.login("email@example.com", "password")

# Complete request headers include:
# 1. base_headers (browser emulation)
# 2. Authorization header (Bearer token)
# 3. Cookie header (auth tokens)
# 4. Content-Type (for POST requests)

See Authentication Attributes.

Custom API Requests

When making custom requests, always include base_headers:

import requests

# Get base headers
headers = client.base_headers.copy()

# Add auth and content type
headers.update({
    'Authorization': f'Bearer {client.access_token}',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
})

# Make request
response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=data)

HTTP Header Standards

Learn more about HTTP headers:

• MDN HTTP Headers Documentation
• CORS Headers

Summary

base_headers contains standard HTTP headers for all requests. They ensure proper browser emulation and CORS compliance. Default headers are optimized and rarely need modification. Add custom headers with .update() rather than replacing all headers, and always validate headers after modifications.

Quick Reference

from axiomtradeapi import AxiomTradeClient

client = AxiomTradeClient()

# View headers
print(client.base_headers)

# Add custom header
client.base_headers['X-Custom'] = 'value'

# Update multiple headers
client.base_headers.update({
    'X-Api-Version': '1.0',
    'X-Client-ID': 'my-bot'
})

# Copy headers for custom requests
custom_headers = client.base_headers.copy()
custom_headers['Authorization'] = 'Bearer token'

Related Documentation

• Authentication Attributes
• API Reference