fix(chain): hoist Middleware/AsyncMiddleware imports out of TYPE_CHECKING

compose_async and compose used string annotations referencing
AsyncMiddleware / Middleware imported only under `if typing.TYPE_CHECKING:`.
Calling typing.get_type_hints(compose_async) at runtime raised
`NameError: name 'AsyncMiddleware' is not defined`. The TYPE_CHECKING
guard also violates the project's typing-import-style memory rule.

Drop the guard, import the protocols unconditionally at module top, and
unquote the string annotations. httpware.middleware.__init__ does not
import chain.py back, so no circular import.

Tests pin typing.get_type_hints(compose_async) and typing.get_type_hints(
compose) resolve without NameError.

Closes audit Low finding (chain.py:9-10) from
planning/audit/2026-06-07-deep-audit.md.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: lesnik512

src/httpware/middleware/chain.py

@@ -5,16 +5,14 @@
 
 import httpx2
 
-
-if typing.TYPE_CHECKING:
-    from httpware.middleware import AsyncMiddleware, Middleware
+from httpware.middleware import AsyncMiddleware, Middleware
 
 
 _AsyncNext: typing.TypeAlias = Callable[[httpx2.Request], Awaitable[httpx2.Response]]
 _Next: typing.TypeAlias = Callable[[httpx2.Request], httpx2.Response]
 
 
-def compose_async(middleware: "Sequence[AsyncMiddleware]", terminal: _AsyncNext) -> _AsyncNext:
+def compose_async(middleware: Sequence[AsyncMiddleware], terminal: _AsyncNext) -> _AsyncNext:
     """Fold `middleware` into a single callable around `terminal`.
 
     The first middleware in the sequence is the outermost wrapper.
@@ -25,14 +23,14 @@ def compose_async(middleware: "Sequence[AsyncMiddleware]", terminal: _AsyncNext)
     return dispatch
 
 
-def _wrap(layer: "AsyncMiddleware", inner: _AsyncNext) -> _AsyncNext:
+def _wrap(layer: AsyncMiddleware, inner: _AsyncNext) -> _AsyncNext:
     async def call(request: httpx2.Request) -> httpx2.Response:
         return await layer(request, inner)
 
     return call
 
 
-def compose(middleware: "Sequence[Middleware]", terminal: _Next) -> _Next:
+def compose(middleware: Sequence[Middleware], terminal: _Next) -> _Next:
     """Fold sync `middleware` into a single callable around sync `terminal`.
 
     The first middleware in the sequence is the outermost wrapper.
@@ -43,7 +41,7 @@ def compose(middleware: "Sequence[Middleware]", terminal: _Next) -> _Next:
     return dispatch
 
 
-def _wrap_sync(layer: "Middleware", inner: _Next) -> _Next:
+def _wrap_sync(layer: Middleware, inner: _Next) -> _Next:
     def call(request: httpx2.Request) -> httpx2.Response:
         return layer(request, inner)
 

tests/test_middleware.py

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """Tests for the AsyncMiddleware protocol, AsyncNext type, chain composition, and decorators."""
 
 import asyncio
+import typing
 from http import HTTPStatus
 
 import httpx2
@@ -13,7 +14,7 @@
     async_before_request,
     async_on_error,
 )
-from httpware.middleware.chain import compose_async
+from httpware.middleware.chain import compose, compose_async
 
 
 def _make_request(url: str = "https://example.test/x") -> httpx2.Request:
@@ -174,3 +175,19 @@ async def terminal(request: httpx2.Request) -> httpx2.Response:  # noqa: ARG001
     dispatch = compose_async((swallow_all,), terminal)
     with pytest.raises(asyncio.CancelledError):
         await dispatch(_make_request())
+
+
+def test_compose_async_get_type_hints_resolves_without_nameerror() -> None:
+    """typing.get_type_hints(compose_async) must resolve to real classes, not raise NameError.
+
+    Pre-0.8.5: AsyncMiddleware was imported only under `if typing.TYPE_CHECKING`,
+    so get_type_hints raised NameError at runtime.
+    """
+    hints = typing.get_type_hints(compose_async)
+    assert "middleware" in hints
+
+
+def test_compose_get_type_hints_resolves_without_nameerror() -> None:
+    """Sync mirror — sync `compose` get_type_hints must also resolve."""
+    hints = typing.get_type_hints(compose)
+    assert "middleware" in hints