diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9df519eb..1d8d1ccc 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ loosely while pre-1.0 (breaking changes can land on minor bumps).
 ## [Unreleased]
 
 ### Fixed
+- **Inbound HTTP body honors Content-Length.** `parse_http_request` now
+  takes at most `Content-Length` bytes from the header-read leftover, so
+  `Content-Length: 0` stays empty and extra pipelined or smuggled bytes
+  past the declared length are not adopted as this request's body.
 - **SSE mailbox terminal after overflow.** `sse_mailbox_push(...,
   force_deliver=true)` now evicts oldest events and delivers a terminal
   envelope even when a prior push already set `overflowed`. Request-event
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index c5f43348..61f6b1dd 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1310,6 +1310,17 @@ if(INDEX_BUILD_TESTS)
     )
     add_test(NAME unit_circuit_breaker COMMAND unit_circuit_breaker)
 
+    # --- Unit tests for inbound HTTP/1.1 request framing ---
+    add_executable(unit_http_request
+        tests/test_http_request.cpp
+        src/api/http_request.cpp
+    )
+    target_include_directories(unit_http_request PRIVATE
+        ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/include
+        ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/third_party/doctest
+    )
+    add_test(NAME unit_http_request COMMAND unit_http_request)
+
     # --- Unit tests for CORS allowlist policy ---
     add_executable(unit_cors
         tests/test_cors.cpp
diff --git a/src/api/http_request.cpp b/src/api/http_request.cpp
index 5f4b4e3e..311d8c64 100644
--- a/src/api/http_request.cpp
+++ b/src/api/http_request.cpp
@@ -110,7 +110,13 @@ bool parse_http_request(int fd, HttpRequest& req) {
         }
         static constexpr size_t kMaxBody = 16 * 1024 * 1024;  // hard cap
         if (want > kMaxBody) return false;
-        req.body = leftover;
+        // TCP often delivers the header sentinel plus extra bytes in one
+        // recv.  leftover is that prefix — take at most `want` so CL:0
+        // stays empty and pipelined/smuggled bytes past Content-Length
+        // never become this request's body.  Connection: close drops the
+        // rest (same framing as ApiClient::read_response_body).
+        if (leftover.size() > want) leftover.resize(want);
+        req.body = std::move(leftover);
         char buf[4096];
         while (req.body.size() < want) {
             size_t remaining = want - req.body.size();
diff --git a/tests/test_http_request.cpp b/tests/test_http_request.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0ae5be79
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_http_request.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+// tests/test_http_request.cpp — inbound HTTP/1.1 request framing.
+
+#define DOCTEST_CONFIG_IMPLEMENT_WITH_MAIN
+#include "doctest.h"
+#include "api/http_request.h"
+
+#include <string>
+#include <sys/socket.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+
+using namespace arbiter;
+
+namespace {
+
+bool parse_from_bytes(const std::string& raw, HttpRequest& req) {
+    int sp[2];
+    if (::socketpair(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0, sp) != 0) return false;
+    const ssize_t w = ::write(sp[0], raw.data(), raw.size());
+    ::shutdown(sp[0], SHUT_WR);
+    const bool ok = parse_http_request(sp[1], req);
+    ::close(sp[0]);
+    ::close(sp[1]);
+    return ok && w == static_cast<ssize_t>(raw.size());
+}
+
+std::string request_with(const std::string& headers, const std::string& body) {
+    return "POST /v1/orchestrate HTTP/1.1\r\n" + headers + "\r\n" + body;
+}
+
+} // namespace
+
+TEST_CASE("exact Content-Length leftover is the body") {
+    HttpRequest req;
+    REQUIRE(parse_from_bytes(
+        request_with("Content-Length: 5\r\n", "hello"), req));
+    CHECK(req.method == "POST");
+    CHECK(req.path == "/v1/orchestrate");
+    CHECK(req.body == "hello");
+}
+
+TEST_CASE("body is capped to Content-Length when leftover overshoots") {
+    HttpRequest req;
+    REQUIRE(parse_from_bytes(
+        request_with("Content-Length: 5\r\n", "helloXXXXEXTRA"), req));
+    CHECK(req.body == "hello");
+}
+
+TEST_CASE("Content-Length 0 does not adopt leftover as body") {
+    HttpRequest req;
+    REQUIRE(parse_from_bytes(
+        request_with("Content-Length: 0\r\n",
+                     "{\"agent\":\"smuggled\"}"), req));
+    CHECK(req.body.empty());
+}
+
+TEST_CASE("GET without Content-Length drops leftover bytes") {
+    HttpRequest req;
+    REQUIRE(parse_from_bytes(
+        "GET /v1/health HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: x\r\n\r\nPOST /v1/orchestrate HTTP/1.1\r\n\r\n",
+        req));
+    CHECK(req.method == "GET");
+    CHECK(req.path == "/v1/health");
+    CHECK(req.body.empty());
+}
+
+TEST_CASE("short body after Content-Length is rejected") {
+    HttpRequest req;
+    CHECK_FALSE(parse_from_bytes(
+        request_with("Content-Length: 10\r\n", "short"), req));
+}
+
+TEST_CASE("duplicate Content-Length is rejected") {
+    HttpRequest req;
+    CHECK_FALSE(parse_from_bytes(
+        request_with("Content-Length: 5\r\nContent-Length: 5\r\n", "hello"),
+        req));
+}
+
+TEST_CASE("Transfer-Encoding is rejected") {
+    HttpRequest req;
+    CHECK_FALSE(parse_from_bytes(
+        request_with("Transfer-Encoding: chunked\r\nContent-Length: 5\r\n",
+                     "hello"),
+        req));
+}