nginx-caddy

Nginx & Caddy Skill

Configure Nginx or Caddy as reverse proxy with SSL.

Use When

• Setting up reverse proxies for web services
• Configuring SSL/TLS certificates (Let's Encrypt)
• Routing domains to backend services
• Load balancing or serving static files

Nginx Quick Reference

Common Commands

# Test config syntax
sudo nginx -t

# Reload (graceful)
sudo systemctl reload nginx

# View error log
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

# View access log
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log

Reverse Proxy (with SSL via Certbot)

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

WebSocket Proxy

location /ws {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
}

Static Files

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name static.example.com;
    root /var/www/static;
    index index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    # Cache static assets
    location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|svg|woff2)$ {
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }
}

SSL with Certbot

# Install
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx

# Get cert + auto-configure nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

# Renew all certs
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

# Auto-renewal is installed via systemd timer
systemctl list-timers | grep certbot