APP-5243: Migrate to httpx (goodbye requests 👋 )

[Aryamanz29]

Jira link:

• https://atlanhq.atlassian.net/browse/APP-5243

• Removed requirements files (no need since we already migrated to uv)

• Updated GitHub workflows for Docker image builds to use uv sync (without dev dependencies)

• Breaking change: Dropped support for Python 3.8 (httpx-retries requires Python ≥ 3.9)

Other v8 release tasks:

• Add Python version in headers
• Reduce test build time & coverage report generation
  (explore label-based test runs for async tests)
• Fix conda packages publish GitHub Action
• Complete final SDK benchmarking
• Create async dev docs (TBD)

✨ Description

• Completely removed support for requests and replaced it with httpx (which supports both sync and async clients)
• Implemented AsyncAtlanClient for all async operations (extends AtlanClient for reusability)
• Refactored all existing clients, caches, and several creators (connection, badge, etc.) to support async variants, and added new models (mainly search result models that require async iteration). Following aio directory convention for all async components.
• Used a "sandwich approach" for refactoring: extracted common functionality (request preparation and response processing) into a separate common sub-package. This enables reuse across both sync and async operations - only the middle layer (API calling with respective clients) differs.

Ex:

from pyatlan.client.common import FindPurposesByName

@validate_arguments
async def find_purposes_by_name(
   self,
   name: str,
   attributes: Optional[List[str]] = None,
) -> List[Purpose]:
   """
   Async find purposes by name using shared business logic.
   :param name: of the purpose
   :param attributes: (optional) collection of attributes to retrieve for the purpose
   :returns: all purposes with that name, if found
   :raises NotFoundError: if no purpose with the provided name exists
   """
   search_request = FindPurposesByName.prepare_request(name, attributes)
   search_results = await self.search(search_request)
   return FindPurposesByName.process_response(
       search_results, name, allow_multiple=True
   )

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🧩 Type of change

Select all that apply:

• 🚀 New feature (non-breaking change that adds functionality)
• 🐛 Bug fix (non-breaking change that fixes an issue) — please include tests! Refer testing-toolkit 🧪
• 🔄 Refactor (code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature)
• 🧹 Maintenance (chores, cleanup, minor improvements)
• 💥 Breaking change (fix or feature that may break existing functionality)
• 📦 Dependency upgrade/downgrade
• 📚 Documentation updates

---

✅ How has this been tested? (e.g. screenshots, logs, workflow links)

Describe how the change was tested. Include:

• Steps to reproduce
• Any relevant screenshots, logs, or links to successful workflow runs
• Details on environment/setup if applicable

---

📋 Checklist

• My code follows the project’s style guidelines
• I’ve performed a self-review of my code
• I’ve added comments in tricky or complex areas
• I’ve updated the documentation as needed
• There are no new warnings from my changes
• I’ve added tests to cover my changes
• All new and existing tests pass locally

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

Migrates the SDK from requests to httpx (using httpx-retries) and drops Python 3.8 support, updating tests, dependencies, and CI workflows accordingly.

• Refactored AtlanClient to use httpx.Client with RetryTransport and new timeout/streaming logic
• Updated unit and integration tests to mock and assert against httpx behavior
• Removed requests from dependencies, bumped requires-python to ≥ 3.9, and adjusted GitHub Actions to no longer test on 3.8

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 14 out of 16 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
tests/unit/test_query_client.py	Adapted mocks to support httpx streaming and reading
tests/unit/test_file_client.py	Updated mocks and assertions for httpx file streaming
tests/unit/test_base_vcr_yaml.py	Replaced requests calls with httpx equivalents
tests/unit/test_base_vcr_json.py	Replaced requests calls with httpx equivalents
tests/integration/test_index_search.py	Swapped requests exceptions and imports for httpx
requirements-dev.txt	Removed legacy dev requirements file
pyproject.toml	Dropped Python 3.8, removed requests, added httpx
pyatlan/client/common.py	Switched retry import from urllib3 to httpx-retries
pyatlan/client/atlan.py	Refactored client setup, API calls, timeout and streams
pyatlan/client/asset.py	Wrapped retry errors in _wait_till_deleted
.github/workflows/pyatlan-test-cron.yaml	Updated Python matrix to ≥ 3.9
.github/workflows/pyatlan-publish.yaml	Changed uv sync to omit dev dependencies
.github/workflows/pyatlan-pr.yaml	Dropped 3.8 from PR and vulnerability-scan inputs
.github/workflows/build_and_upload_conda_packages.yaml	Removed 3.8 from conda build matrix

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

.github/workflows/pyatlan-pr.yaml:40

• [nitpick] Changing the vulnerability-scan inputs to scan the entire workspace may include unintended files. Specify the exact dependency files (e.g., requirements lock files) to limit the scan surface and reduce noise.

            inputs: .

[Aryamanz29]

Put tons of work into this - fingers crossed it pays off! 🤞 lets goooo 🚀