You are entirely right that clj-http injects some additional functionality via middleware. It is, IMHO, a pretty sensible set of default middleware, so I worry a bit about how the server is implemented if these things are causing failures, but I understand the need to focus on the problem at hand / cope with the server you have.
If you want to disable the default middleware, that’s as easy as:
(client/with-middleware []
(client/request ,,,))
However, I would be mindful of this from the with-middleware doc string:
It is highly recommended to at least include:
clj-http.client/wrap-url
clj-http.client/wrap-method
Unless you really know what you are doing.
Cheers.