Thinking about it, it actually makes sense to modify the header in the "request_prepare" phase. Since, while I'm modifying the header I'm still in the "prepare" phase.

So other than using "request_prepare" to solve my problem, I think there is rationale behind using it over "request_send"

According to the lwp documentation, the signature of @_ is the same, header, useragent, and the handler. "sub { my($request, $ua, $h) = @_; ... }"

I'm not sure what you're trying to show me. You get the same error I do. Why does dumping a variable cause it to cause an error? In calling "print Dumper @_" where am I calling request?

Add to that I change handlers without changing code and dumping @_ doesn't generate an error. According to the LWP docs the @_ has the same signature.

...

request_send => sub { my($request, $ua, $h) = @_; ... }

This handler gets a chance of handling requests before they're sent to the protocol handlers. It should return an HTTP::Response object if it wishes to terminate the processing; otherwise it should return nothing.

The response_header and response_data handlers will not be invoked for this response, but the response_done will be.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

"It" is the sub. so "it" the sub need a "return $HTTP::Response" in the sub, or from the code example a "return $request".

Ok, cool! Thanks for copy pasting the docs that I've read 10k times. Sometimes it just takes a 2nd look.