diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1a9399c0..c1a4ca81 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+# 2.0.0-alpha.19
+* `parseBody` checks for null content type, and throws a `400` if none was given.
+* Add `ResponseContext.contentLength`.
+* Update `streamFile` to set content length, and also to work on `HEAD` requests.
+
 # 2.0.0-alpha.18
 * Upgrade `http2` dependency.
 * Upgrade `uuid` dependency.
diff --git a/lib/src/core/request_context.dart b/lib/src/core/request_context.dart
index 0e081106..6ac8f4a8 100644
--- a/lib/src/core/request_context.dart
+++ b/lib/src/core/request_context.dart
@@ -185,6 +185,10 @@ abstract class RequestContext<RawRequest> {
 
   /// Manually parses the request body, if it has not already been parsed.
   Future<void> parseBody({Encoding encoding: utf8}) async {
+    if (contentType == null) {
+      throw FormatException('Missing "content-type" header.');
+    }
+
     if (!_hasParsedBody) {
       _hasParsedBody = true;
 
diff --git a/lib/src/core/response_context.dart b/lib/src/core/response_context.dart
index eccea030..50697dd5 100644
--- a/lib/src/core/response_context.dart
+++ b/lib/src/core/response_context.dart
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ abstract class ResponseContext<RawResponse>
   /// This response's status code.
   int get statusCode => _statusCode;
 
-  void set statusCode(int value) {
+  set statusCode(int value) {
     if (!isOpen)
       throw closed();
     else
@@ -104,6 +104,23 @@ abstract class ResponseContext<RawResponse>
   /// open indefinitely.
   FutureOr<RawResponse> detach();
 
+  /// Gets or sets the content length to send back to a client.
+  ///
+  /// Returns `null` if the header is invalidly formatted.
+  int get contentLength {
+    return int.tryParse(headers['content-length']);
+  }
+
+  /// Gets or sets the content length to send back to a client.
+  ///
+  /// If [value] is `null`, then the header will be removed.
+  set contentLength(int value) {
+    if (value == null)
+      headers.remove('content-length');
+    else
+      headers['content-length'] = value.toString();
+  }
+
   /// Gets or sets the content type to send back to a client.
   MediaType get contentType {
     try {
@@ -114,7 +131,7 @@ abstract class ResponseContext<RawResponse>
   }
 
   /// Gets or sets the content type to send back to a client.
-  void set contentType(MediaType value) {
+  set contentType(MediaType value) {
     headers['content-type'] = value.toString();
   }
 
@@ -289,13 +306,18 @@ abstract class ResponseContext<RawResponse>
   }
 
   /// Streams a file to this response.
-  Future streamFile(File file) {
+  ///
+  /// `HEAD` responses will not actually write data.
+  Future streamFile(File file) async {
     if (!isOpen) throw closed();
     var mimeType = app.mimeTypeResolver.lookup(file.path);
+    contentLength = await file.length();
     contentType = mimeType == null
         ? new MediaType('application', 'octet-stream')
         : MediaType.parse(mimeType);
-    return file.openRead().pipe(this);
+
+    if (correspondingRequest.method != 'HEAD')
+      return file.openRead().pipe(this);
   }
 
   /// Configure the response to write to an intermediate response buffer, rather than to the stream directly.
diff --git a/pubspec.yaml b/pubspec.yaml
index a3380ed4..5055412d 100644
--- a/pubspec.yaml
+++ b/pubspec.yaml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name: angel_framework
-version: 2.0.0-alpha.18
+version: 2.0.0-alpha.19
 description: A high-powered HTTP server with dependency injection, routing and much more.
 author: Tobe O <thosakwe@gmail.com>
 homepage: https://github.com/angel-dart/angel_framework