Render a redirect message as the plain text it claims to be

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@
 * [#2841](https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape/pull/2841): Stop `use`, `helpers`, `rescue_from` and other registrations declared below a route from reaching it when an earlier registration had seeded the same key (see UPGRADING) - [@ericproulx](https://github.com/ericproulx).
 * [#2846](https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape/pull/2846): Keep a `:version` path capture in `params` when the API declares no version, instead of always dropping it as Grape's own - [@ericproulx](https://github.com/ericproulx).
 * [#2839](https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape/pull/2839): Tag path params as UTF-8 instead of leaving them ASCII-8BIT, so they compare equal to the non-ASCII literals an API declares (see UPGRADING) - [@ericproulx](https://github.com/ericproulx).
+* [#2845](https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape/pull/2845): Render `redirect`'s default message as the plain text its content type announces, instead of letting the API's formatter re-encode it (see UPGRADING) - [@ericproulx](https://github.com/ericproulx).
 * Your contribution here.
 
 ### 3.3.5 (2026-07-30)

UPGRADING.md

@@ -38,6 +38,41 @@ end
 
 Nothing changes for the ordinary arrangement — registrations declared before a route, or inherited from an enclosing namespace or a mounting API, still apply exactly as before, including values an enclosing scope gains after the nested scope was created.
 
+#### `redirect` renders its default message as plain text
+
+The `redirect` API set the content type to `text/plain`, but delegated body rendering to the formatter. With an API defaulting to JSON, a `redirect` would render the body as JSON with a `text/plain` content-type header.
+
+```ruby
+class API < Grape::API
+  format :json
+  get('/r') { redirect '/there' }
+end
+```
+
+```
+Content-Type: text/plain
+
+"This resource has been moved temporarily to /there."
+```
+
+Grape now renders the message it generates with the txt formatter, so the body is the plain sentence the content type claims:
+
+```
+Content-Type: text/plain
+
+This resource has been moved temporarily to /there.
+```
+
+**What can break.** Code that parses a redirect body — `JSON.parse(response.body)` on a redirect succeeded before and now raises — or a test asserting on the encoded form. On a JSON API the `Location` header, the status and the `Content-Type` are unchanged, so a client that follows the redirect is unaffected.
+
+On an API whose formatter cannot serialize a String, such as `format :xml`, `redirect` did not work at all: the formatter raised, and the response was a `500` carrying an error document and no `Location` header. Those APIs now get the `302` and the `Location` they always should have.
+
+This applies only to the message Grape generates. A body you pass yourself is still rendered by the API's formatter, unchanged:
+
+```ruby
+redirect '/there', body: { message: 'moved' }   # still {"message":"moved"} on a JSON API
+```
+
 #### Path params are tagged UTF-8 instead of ASCII-8BIT
 
 Params captured from the request path — `route_param`, `:id`-style segments, splats — now come back tagged `UTF-8`. They used to carry the `ASCII-8BIT` encoding of Rack's `PATH_INFO`, because Mustermann decodes the path against that raw string and nothing re-tagged the result. Query and body params were already `UTF-8`, since Rack tags those itself.

lib/grape/dsl/inside_route.rb

@@ -53,6 +53,12 @@ def redirect(url, permanent: false, body: nil)
         end
         header 'Location', url
         content_type 'text/plain'
+        # Render the message Grape generated as the plain text it is. Setting
+        # only the header left it to the API's own formatter, which on a JSON
+        # API returned the sentence wrapped in quotes under a text/plain content
+        # type. A caller-supplied body keeps the API's format: it may be
+        # structured, and the txt formatter would render a Hash through `to_s`.
+        api_format :txt unless body
         body body_message
       end
 

spec/grape/endpoint_spec.rb

@@ -667,6 +667,66 @@ def handle_argument_error
       get '/hey'
       expect(last_response.body).to eq 'test body'
     end
+
+    # The generated message is announced as text/plain, so it has to be rendered
+    # as such whatever the API's own format is. Left to the JSON formatter it
+    # came back as a quoted JSON string under a text/plain content type.
+    context 'when the API declares a format of its own' do
+      before do
+        subject.format :json
+        subject.get('/hey') { redirect '/ha' }
+      end
+
+      it 'renders the message as plain text' do
+        get '/hey'
+
+        expect(last_response.headers[Rack::CONTENT_TYPE]).to eq('text/plain')
+        expect(last_response.body).to eq 'This resource has been moved temporarily to /ha.'
+      end
+
+      # Only the message Grape generates is known to be text. A body the caller
+      # passed keeps the API's format, so a structured one stays parseable
+      # rather than being rendered through the txt formatter's `to_s`.
+      it 'leaves a structured body to the API format' do
+        subject.get('/there') { redirect '/ha', body: { message: 'go away' } }
+
+        get '/there'
+        expect(last_response.body).to eq({ message: 'go away' }.to_json)
+      end
+
+      it 'leaves a string body to the API format' do
+        subject.get('/there') { redirect '/ha', body: 'go away' }
+
+        get '/there'
+        expect(last_response.body).to eq '"go away"'
+      end
+
+      it 'leaves the format of other routes alone' do
+        subject.get('/plain') { { a: 1 } }
+
+        get '/plain'
+        expect(last_response.headers[Rack::CONTENT_TYPE]).to eq('application/json')
+        expect(last_response.body).to eq({ a: 1 }.to_json)
+      end
+    end
+
+    # The XML formatter cannot serialize a String, so it raised and the redirect
+    # came back as a 500 carrying an error document and no Location header.
+    context 'when the API format cannot serialize a string' do
+      before do
+        subject.format :xml
+        subject.get('/hey') { redirect '/ha' }
+      end
+
+      it 'still redirects' do
+        get '/hey'
+
+        expect(last_response.status).to eq 302
+        expect(last_response.headers['Location']).to eq '/ha'
+        expect(last_response.headers[Rack::CONTENT_TYPE]).to eq('text/plain')
+        expect(last_response.body).to eq 'This resource has been moved temporarily to /ha.'
+      end
+    end
   end
 
   describe 'NameError' do