diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 01a21de..f539c75 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ CFLAGS=-g -Wall
 
 all: snac
 
-snac: snac.o main.o data.o
+snac: snac.o main.o data.o http.o
 	$(CC) -L/usr/local/lib *.o -lcurl -lcrypto -o $@
 
 .c.o:
@@ -17,3 +17,5 @@ snac.o: snac.c snac.h \
 main.o: main.c snac.h xs.h
 
 data.o: data.c snac.h xs.h xs_json.h
+
+http.o: http.c snac.h xs.h xs_io.h xs_encdec.h xs_openssl.h xs_curl.h
diff --git a/http.c b/http.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ffc676a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/http.c
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+/* snac - A simple, minimalistic ActivityPub instance */
+/* copyright (c) 2022 grunfink - MIT license */
+
+#include "xs.h"
+#include "xs_io.h"
+#include "xs_encdec.h"
+#include "xs_openssl.h"
+#include "xs_curl.h"
+
+#include "snac.h"
+
+d_char *http_signed_request(snac *snac, char *method, char *url,
+                        d_char *headers,
+                        d_char *body, int b_size,
+                        int *status, d_char **payload, int *p_size)
+/* does an HTTP request */
+{
+    return xs_http_request(method, url, headers,
+                           body, b_size, status, payload, p_size);
+}