Combine the fields that will be used for content transformation
(content-type, codec, and group version) into a single struct in client,
and then pass that struct into the rest client and request. Set the
content-type when sending requests to the server, and accept the content
type as primary.
Will form the foundation for content-negotiation via the client.
The pending codec -> conversion split changes the signature of
Encode and Decode to be more complicated. Create a stub helper
with the exact semantics of today and do the simple mechanical
refactor here to reduce the cost of that change.