Presented herein are techniques in which a service proxy in a service node is configured to receive a packet encapsulated in a service header that includes a variable set of context headers. The service proxy is configured to use the context headers in the service header to map data in the packet to a local identifier that is associated with one of a plurality of service-functions hosted by the service node. The service proxy is further configured to forward the data in the packet to the service-function associated with the local identifier.