Is it possible to have http_client run only once?

[tfendt-belong-gg]

I'm writing a daily task that needs to call a single api endpoint process the results and shutdown. I tried using the http_client for an input but it continuously calls the endpoint. Is there a way to have it only call once?

I don't want to use a rate_limit as I plan on shutting down the server/container after it is complete. So I need benthos to pull from the api, process, and output to db.

The only way I found to do this was to have a dummy input:

  generate:
    mapping: "root = {}"
    count: 1

pipeline:
  processors:
    - http:
        url: "https://api-call-here.com/blah"
        verb: GET

This doesn't feel like the right solution...or is it?

[mihaitodor]

Hey @tfendt-belong-gg, using the generate input is a good solution, yes. Alternatively, you can wrap the http_client input in a read_until input with check: true and restart_input: false.

BTW, the generate input also lets you set count: 0 along with a cron expression to the interval field: https://www.benthos.dev/docs/components/inputs/generate#interval, so Benthos doesn't shut down in case you ever need that.