diff --git a/kmod/src/net.c b/kmod/src/net.c
index d67c2db1..a217e19c 100644
--- a/kmod/src/net.c
+++ b/kmod/src/net.c
@@ -1154,6 +1154,17 @@ scoutfs_net_alloc_conn(struct super_block *sb,
 	return conn;
 }
 
+/*
+ * Give the caller the client node_id of the connection.  This used by
+ * rare server processing callers who want to send async responses after
+ * request processing has returned.  We didn't want to plumb the
+ * requesting node_id into all the request handlers but that'd work too.
+ */
+u64 scoutfs_net_client_node_id(struct scoutfs_net_connection *conn)
+{
+	return conn->node_id;
+}
+
 /*
  * Shutdown the connection.  Once this returns no network traffic
  * or work will be executing.  The caller can then connect or bind and
diff --git a/kmod/src/net.h b/kmod/src/net.h
index f318b2bf..cbbd29bc 100644
--- a/kmod/src/net.h
+++ b/kmod/src/net.h
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ scoutfs_net_alloc_conn(struct super_block *sb,
 		       scoutfs_net_notify_t notify_up,
 		       scoutfs_net_notify_t notify_down, size_t info_size,
 		       scoutfs_net_request_t *req_funcs, char *name_suffix);
+u64 scoutfs_net_client_node_id(struct scoutfs_net_connection *conn);
 int scoutfs_net_connect(struct super_block *sb,
 			struct scoutfs_net_connection *conn,
 			struct sockaddr_in *sin, unsigned long timeout_ms);