[Answered ]-Django 1.4: How can I access request object in inclusion_tag

try with request = context.get('request', None) if request key doesn’t exists assign None value.

http://docs.python.org/library/stdtypes.html#dict.get

Update:

Also you can pass user to inclusion_tag, with something like this

# In your template_tag
@register.inclusion_tag('template.html', takes_context=True)
def include_client_side_bar(context, user):
    if user:
         pass # do something
    return {
        'STATIC_URL': settings.STATIC_URL,
    }

# in your template
{% include_client_side_bar user=request.user %}