---
title: reverse_proxy (Caddyfile directive)
---
# reverse_proxy
Proxies requests to one or more backends with configurable transport, load balancing, health checking, request manipulation, and buffering options.
- [Syntax](#syntax)
- [Upstreams](#upstreams)
- [Upstream addresses](#upstream-addresses)
- [Dynamic upstreams](#dynamic-upstreams)
- [SRV](#srv)
- [A/AAAA](#aaaaa)
- [Load balancing](#load-balancing)
- [Active health checks](#active-health-checks)
- [Passive health checks](#passive-health-checks)
- [Streaming](#streaming)
- [Headers](#headers)
- [Rewrites](#rewrites)
- [Transports](#transports)
- [The `http` transport](#the-http-transport)
- [The `fastcgi` transport](#the-fastcgi-transport)
- [Intercepting responses](#intercepting-responses)
- [Examples](#examples)
## Syntax
```caddy-d
reverse_proxy [] [] {
# backends
to
dynamic ...
# load balancing
lb_policy []
lb_try_duration
lb_try_interval
# active health checking
health_uri
health_port
health_interval
health_timeout
health_status
health_body
health_headers {
[]
}
# passive health checking
fail_duration
max_fails
unhealthy_status
unhealthy_latency
unhealthy_request_count
# streaming
flush_interval
buffer_requests
buffer_responses
max_buffer_size
# request manipulation
trusted_proxies [private_ranges]
header_up [+|-] [ []]
header_down [+|-] [ []]
method
rewrite
# round trip
transport {
...
}
# optionally intercept responses from upstream
@name {
status
header []
}
replace_status []
handle_response [] {
# special directives only available in handle_response
copy_response [] [] {
status
}
copy_response_headers [] {
include
exclude
}
}
}
```
### Upstreams
- **<upstreams...>** is a list of upstreams (backends) to which to proxy.
- **to** is an alternate way to specify the list of upstreams, one (or more) per line.
- **dynamic** configures a _dynamic upstreams_ module. This allows getting the list of upstreams dynamically for every request. See [dynamic upstreams](#dynamic-upstreams) below for a description of standard dynamic upstream modules. Dynamic upstreams are retrieved at every proxy loop iteration (i.e. potentially multiple times per request if load balancing retries are enabled) and will be preferred over static upstreams. If an error occurs, the proxy will fall back to using any statically-configured upstreams.
#### Upstream addresses
Static upstream addresses can take the form of a conventional [Caddy network address](/docs/conventions#network-addresses) or a URL that contains only scheme and host/port. Valid examples:
- `localhost:4000`
- `127.0.0.1:4000`
- `http://localhost:4000`
- `https://example.com`
- `h2c://127.0.0.1`
- `example.com`
- `unix//var/php.sock`
Note: Schemes cannot be mixed, since they modify the common transport configuration (a TLS-enabled transport cannot carry both HTTPS and plaintext HTTP). Any explicit transport configuration will not be overwritten, and omitting schemes or using other ports will not assume a particular transport.
Additionally, upstream addresses cannot contain paths or query strings, as that would imply simultaneous rewriting the request while proxying, which behavior is not defined or supported. You may use the [`rewrite`](/docs/caddyfile/directives/rewrite) directive should you need this.
If the address is not a URL (i.e. does not have a scheme), then placeholders can be used, but this makes the upstream _dynamically static_, meaning that potentially many different backends act as a single, static upstream in terms of health checks and load balancing.
When proxying over HTTPS, you may need to override the `Host` header such that it matches the TLS SNI value, which is used by servers for routing and certificate selection. See the [Headers](#headers) section below for more details.
#### Dynamic upstreams
Caddy's reverse proxy comes standard with some dynamic upstream modules. Note that using dynamic upstreams has implications for load balancing and health checks, depending on specific policy configuration: active health checks do not run for dynamic upstreams; and load balancing and passive health checks are best served if the list of upstreams is relatively stable and consistent (especially with round-robin). Ideally, dynamic upstream modules only return healthy, usable backends.
##### SRV
Retrieves upstreams from SRV DNS records.
```caddy-d
dynamic srv [] {
service
proto
name
refresh
resolvers
dial_timeout
dial_fallback_delay
}
```
- **<name>** - The full domain name of the record to look up (i.e. `_service._proto.name`).
- **service** - The service component of the full name.
- **proto** - The protocol component of the full name. Either `tcp` or `udp`.
- **name** - The name component. Or, if `service` and `proto` are empty, the full domain name to query.
- **refresh** - How often to refresh cached results. Default: `1m`
- **resolvers** - List of DNS resolvers to override system resolvers.
- **dial_timeout** - Timeout for dialing the query.
- **dial_fallback_delay** - Timeout for falling back from IPv6 to IPv4 via RFC 6555. Default: `300ms`
##### A/AAAA
Retrieves upstreams from A/AAAA DNS records.
```caddy-d
dynamic a [] {
name
port
refresh
resolvers
dial_timeout
dial_fallback_delay
}
```
- **<name>, name** - The domain name to query.
- **<port>, port** - The port to use for the backend.
- **refresh** - How often to refresh cached results. Default: `1m`
- **resolvers** - List of DNS resolvers to override system resolvers.
- **dial_timeout** - Timeout for dialing the query.
- **dial_fallback_delay** - Timeout for falling back from IPv6 to IPv4 via RFC 6555. Default: `300ms`
### Load balancing
Load balancing is used whenever more than one upstream is defined.
- **lb_policy** is the name of the load balancing policy, along with any options. Default: `random`. Can be:
- `random` - randomly choose an upstream
- `random_choose ` - selects two or more upstreams randomly, then chooses one with least load (`n` is usually 2)
- `first` - choose first available upstream, from the order they are defined in the config
- `round_robin` - iterate each upstream in turn
- `least_conn` - choose upstream with fewest number of current requests; if more than one host has the least number of requests, then one of the hosts is chosen at random
- `ip_hash` - map the client IP to sticky upstream
- `uri_hash` - map the request URI (path and query) to sticky upstream
- `header [field]` - map request header to sticky upstream; if the specified header is not present, a random upstream is selected
- `cookie [ []]` - based on the given cookie (default name is `lb` if not specified), the cookie value is hashed, optionally with a secret for HMAC-SHA256; on the first request from a client, a random upstream is selected
- **lb_try_duration** is a [duration value](/docs/conventions#durations) that defines how long to try selecting available backends for each request if the next available host is down. By default, this retry is disabled. Clients will wait for up to this long while the load balancer tries to find an available upstream host. A reasonable starting point might be `5s` since the HTTP transport's default dial timeout is `3s`, so that should allow for at least one retry if the first selected upstream cannot be reached; but feel free to experiment to find the right balance for your usecase.
- **lb_try_interval** is a [duration value](/docs/conventions#durations) that defines how long to wait between selecting the next host from the pool. Default is `250ms`. Only relevant when a request to an upstream host fails. Be aware that setting this to 0 with a non-zero `lb_try_duration` can cause the CPU to spin if all backends are down and latency is very low.
#### Active health checks
Active health checks perform health checking in the background on a timer:
- **health_uri** is the URI path (and optional query) for active health checks.
- **health_port** is the port to use for active health checks, if different from the upstream's port.
- **health_interval** is a [duration value](/docs/conventions#durations) that defines how often to perform active health checks.
- **health_timeout** is a [duration value](/docs/conventions#durations) that defines how long to wait for a reply before marking the backend as down.
- **health_status** is the HTTP status code to expect from a healthy backend. Can be a 3-digit status code, or a status code class ending in `xx`. For example: `200` (which is the default), or `2xx`.
- **health_body** is a substring or regular expression to match on the response body of an active health check. If the backend does not return a matching body, it will be marked as down.
- **health_headers** allows specifying headers to set on the active health check requests. This is useful if you need to change the `Host` header, or if you need to provide some authentication to your backend as part of your health checks.
#### Passive health checks
Passive health checks happen inline with actual proxied requests:
- **fail_duration** is a [duration value](/docs/conventions#durations) that defines how long to remember a failed request. A duration > `0` enables passive health checking; the default is `0` (off). A reasonable starting point might be `30s` to balance error rates with responsiveness when bringing an unhealthy upstream back online; but feel free to experiment to find the right balance for your usecase.
- **max_fails** is the maximum number of failed requests within `fail_duration` that are needed before considering a backend to be down; must be >= `1`; default is `1`.
- **unhealthy_status** counts a request as failed if the response comes back with one of these status codes. Can be a 3-digit status code or a status code class ending in `xx`, for example: `404` or `5xx`.
- **unhealthy_latency** is a [duration value](/docs/conventions#durations) that counts a request as failed if it takes this long to get a response.
- **unhealthy_request_count** is the permissible number of simultaneous requests to a backend before marking it as down.
### Streaming
The proxy **buffers responses** by default for wire efficiency:
- **flush_interval** is a [duration value](/docs/conventions#durations) that adjusts how often Caddy should flush the response buffer to the client. By default, no periodic flushing is done. A negative value disables response buffering, and flushes immediately after each write to the client. This option is ignored when the upstream's response is recognized as a streaming response, or if its content length is `-1`; for such responses, writes are flushed to the client immediately.
- **buffer_requests** will cause the proxy to read the entire request body into a buffer before sending it upstream. This is very inefficient and should only be done if the upstream requires reading request bodies without delay (which is something the upstream application should fix).
- **buffer_responses** will cause the entire response body to be read and buffered in memory before being proxied to the client. This should be avoided if at all possible for performance reasons, but could be useful if the backend has tighter memory constraints.
- **max_buffer_size** if body buffering is enabled, this sets the maximum size of the buffers used for the requests and responses. This accepts all size formats supported by [go-humanize](https://github.com/dustin/go-humanize/blob/master/bytes.go).
### Headers
The proxy can **manipulate headers** between itself and the backend:
- **header_up** Sets, adds (with the `+` prefix), removes (with the `-` prefix), or performs a replacement (by using two arguments, a search and replacement) in a request header going upstream to the backend.
- **header_down** Sets, adds (with the `+` prefix), removes (with the `-` prefix), or performs a replacement (by using two arguments, a search and replacement) in a response header coming downstream from the backend.
For example, to set a request header, overwriting any existing values:
```caddy-d
header_up Some-Header "the value"
```
To add a response header; note that there can be multiple values for a header field:
```caddy-d
header_down +Some-Header "first value"
header_down +Some-Header "second value"
```
To remove a request header, preventing it from reaching the backend:
```caddy-d
header_up -Some-Header
```
To perform a regular expression replacement on a request header:
```caddy-d
header_up Some-Header "^prefix-([A-Za-z0-9]*)$" "replaced-$1-suffix"
```
The regular expression language used is RE2, included in Go. See the [RE2 syntax reference](https://github.com/google/re2/wiki/Syntax) and the [Go regexp syntax overview](https://pkg.go.dev/regexp/syntax). The replacement string is [expanded](https://pkg.go.dev/regexp#Regexp.Expand), allowing use of captured values, for example `$1` being the first capture group.
#### Defaults
By default, Caddy passes thru incoming headers—including `Host`—to the backend without modifications, with three exceptions:
- It sets or augments the [X-Forwarded-For](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Forwarded-For) header field.
- It sets the [X-Forwarded-Proto](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Forwarded-Proto) header field.
- It sets the [X-Forwarded-Host](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Forwarded-Host) header field.
For these `X-Forwarded-*` headers, by default, Caddy will ignore their values from incoming requests, to prevent spoofing. If Caddy is not the first server being connected to by your clients (for example when a CDN is in front of Caddy), you may configure `trusted_proxies` with a list of IP ranges (CIDRs) from which incoming requests are trusted to have sent good values for these headers. As a shortcut, `trusted_proxies private_ranges` may be configured to trust all private IP ranges.
Additionally, when using the [`http` transport](#the-http-transport), the `Accept-Encoding: gzip` header will be set, if it is missing in the request from the client. This behavior can be disabled with [`compression off`](#compression) on the transport.
#### HTTPS
Since (most) headers retain their original value when being proxied, it is often necessary to override the `Host` header with the configured upstream address when proxying to HTTPS, such that the `Host` header matches the TLS ServerName value. For example:
```caddy-d
reverse_proxy https://example.com {
header_up Host {upstream_hostport}
}
```
### Rewrites
By default, Caddy performs the upstream request with the same HTTP method and URI as the incoming request, unless a rewrite was performed in the middleware chain before it reaches `reverse_proxy`.
Before proxying it, the request is cloned; this ensures that any modifications done to the request during the handler do not leak to other handlers. This is useful in situations where the handling needs to continue after the proxy.
In addition to [header manipulations](#headers), the request's method and URI may be changed before it is sent to the upstream:
- **method** changes the HTTP method of the cloned request. If the method is changed to `GET` or `HEAD`, then the incoming request's body will _not_ be sent upstream by this handler. This is useful if you wish to allow a different handler to consume the request body.
- **rewrite** changes the URI (path and query) of the cloned request. This is similar to the [`rewrite` directive](/docs/caddyfile/directives/rewrite), except that it doesn't persist the rewrite past the scope of this handler.
These rewrites are often useful for a pattern like "pre-check requests", where a request is sent to another server to help make a decision on how to continue handling the current request.
For example, the request could be sent to an authentication gateway to decide whether the request was from an authenticated user (e.g. the request has a session cookie) and should continue, or should instead be redirected to a login page. For this pattern, Caddy provides a shortcut directive [`forward_auth`](/docs/caddyfile/directives/forward_auth) to skip most of the config boilerplate.
### Transports
Caddy's proxy **transport** is pluggable:
- **transport** defines how to communicate with the backend. Default is `http`.
#### The `http` transport
```caddy-d
transport http {
read_buffer
write_buffer
max_response_header
dial_timeout
dial_fallback_delay
response_header_timeout
expect_continue_timeout
resolvers
tls
tls_client_auth |
tls_insecure_skip_verify
tls_timeout
tls_trusted_ca_certs
tls_server_name
keepalive [off|]
keepalive_interval
keepalive_idle_conns
keepalive_idle_conns_per_host
versions
compression off
max_conns_per_host
}
```
- **read_buffer** is the size of the read buffer in bytes. It accepts all formats supported by [go-humanize](https://github.com/dustin/go-humanize/blob/master/bytes.go). Default: `4KiB`.
- **write_buffer** is the size of the write buffer in bytes. It accepts all formats supported by [go-humanize](https://github.com/dustin/go-humanize/blob/master/bytes.go). Default: `4KiB`.
- **max_response_header** is the maximum amount of bytes to read from response headers. It accepts all formats supported by [go-humanize](https://github.com/dustin/go-humanize/blob/master/bytes.go). Default: `10MiB`.
- **dial_timeout** is how long to wait when connecting to the upstream socket. Accepts [duration values](/docs/conventions#durations). Default: No timeout.
- **dial_fallback_delay** is how long to wait before spawning an RFC 6555 Fast Fallback connection. A negative value disables this. Accepts [duration values](/docs/conventions#durations). Default: `300ms`.
- **response_header_timeout** is how long to wait for reading response headers from the upstream. Accepts [duration values](/docs/conventions#durations). Default: No timeout.
- **expect_continue_timeout** is how long to wait for the upstreams's first response headers after fully writing the request headers if the request has the header `Expect: 100-continue`. Accepts [duration values](/docs/conventions#durations). Default: No timeout.
- **resolvers** is a list of DNS resolvers to override system resolvers.
- **tls** uses HTTPS with the backend. This will be enabled automatically if you specify backends using the `https://` scheme or port `:443`, or if any of the below `tls_*` options are configured.
- **tls_client_auth** enables TLS client authentication one of two ways: (1) by specifying a domain name for which Caddy should obtain a certificate and keep it renewed, or (2) by specifying a certificate and key file to present for TLS client authentication with the backend.
- **tls_insecure_skip_verify** turns off TLS handshake verification, making the connection insecure and vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks. _Do not use in production._
- **tls_timeout** is a [duration value](/docs/conventions#durations) that specifies how long to wait for the TLS handshake to complete. Default: No timeout.
- **tls_trusted_ca_certs** is a list of PEM files that specify CA public keys to trust when connecting to the backend.
- **tls_server_name** sets the server name used when verifying the certificate received in the TLS handshake. By default, this will use the upstream address' host part. You only need to override this if your upstream address does not match the certificate the upstream is likely to use. For example if the upstream address is an IP address, then you would need to configure this to the hostname being served by the upstream server. Currently, this does not support placeholders, so a static value must be used.
- **keepalive** is either `off` or a [duration value](/docs/conventions#durations) that specifies how long to keep connections open (timeout). Default: `2m`.
- **keepalive_interval** is a [duration value](/docs/conventions#durations) that specifies how often to probe for liveness. Default: `30s`.
- **keepalive_idle_conns** defines the maximum number of connections to keep alive. Default: No limit.
- **keepalive_idle_conns_per_host** if non-zero, controls the maximum idle (keep-alive) connections to keep per-host. Default: `32`.
- **versions** allows customizing which versions of HTTP to support. As a special case, "h2c" is a valid value which will enable cleartext HTTP/2 connections to the upstream (however, this is a non-standard feature that does not use Go's default HTTP transport, so it is exclusive of other features; subject to change or removal). Default: `1.1 2`, or if scheme is `h2c://`, `h2c 2`
- **compression** can be used to disable compression to the backend by setting it to `off`.
- **max_conns_per_host** optionally limits the total number of connections per host, including connections in the dialing, active, and idle states. Default: No limit.
#### The `fastcgi` transport
```caddy-d
transport fastcgi {
root
split
env
resolve_root_symlink
dial_timeout
read_timeout
write_timeout
}
```
- **root** is the root of the site. Default: `{http.vars.root}` or current working directory.
- **split** is where to split the path to get PATH_INFO at the end of the URI.
- **env** sets an extra environment variable to the given value. Can be specified more than once for multiple environment variables.
- **resolve_root_symlink** enables resolving the `root` directory to its actual value by evaluating a symbolic link, if one exists.
- **dial_timeout** is how long to wait when connecting to the upstream socket. Accepts [duration values](/docs/conventions#durations). Default: `3s`.
- **read_timeout** is how long to wait when reading from the FastCGI server. Accepts [duration values](/docs/conventions#durations). Default: no timeout.
- **write_timeout** is how long to wait when sending to the FastCGI server. Accepts [duration values](/docs/conventions#durations). Default: no timeout.
### Intercepting responses
The reverse proxy can be configured to intercept responses from the backend. To facilitate this, response matchers can be defined (similar to the syntax for request matchers) and the first matching `handle_response` route will be invoked.
When a response handler is invoked, the response from the backend is not written to the client, and the configured `handle_response` route will be executed instead, and it is up to that route to write a response. If the route does _not_ write a response, then request handling will continue with any handlers that are ordered after this `reverse_proxy`.
- **@name** is the name of a [response matcher](#response-matcher). As long as each response matcher has a unique name, multiple matchers can be defined. A response can be matched on the status code and presence or value of a response header.
- **replace_status** simply changes the status code of response when matched by the given matcher.
- **handle_response** defines the route to execute when matched by the given matcher (or, if a matcher is omitted, all responses). The first matching block will be applied. Inside a `handle_response` block, any other [directives](/docs/caddyfile/directives) can be used. During
Additionally, inside `handle_response`, two special handler directives may be used:
- **copy_response** copies the response body received from the backend back to the client. Optionally allows changing the status code of the response while doing so. This directive is [ordered before `respond`](/docs/caddyfile/directives#directive-order).
- **copy_response_headers** copies the response headers from the backend to the client, optionally including _OR_ excluding a list of headers fields (cannot specify both `include` and `exclude`). This directive is [ordered after `header`](/docs/caddyfile/directives#directive-order).
Three placeholders will be made available within the `handle_response` routes:
- `{rp.status_code}` The status code from the backend's response.
- `{rp.status_text}` The status text from the backend's response.
- `{rp.header.*}` The headers from the backend's response.
#### Response matcher
**Response matchers** can be used to filter (or classify) responses by specific criteria.
##### status
```caddy-d
status
```
By HTTP status code.
- **<code...>** is a list of HTTP status codes. Special cases are `2xx`, `3xx`, ... which match against all status codes in the range of 200-299, 300-399, ... respectively
##### header
See the [`header`](/docs/caddyfile/matchers#header) request matcher for the supported syntax.
## Examples
Reverse proxy all requests to a local backend:
```caddy-d
reverse_proxy localhost:9005
```
Load-balance all requests between 3 backends:
```caddy-d
reverse_proxy node1:80 node2:80 node3:80
```
Same, but only requests within `/api`, and with header affinity:
```caddy-d
reverse_proxy /api/* node1:80 node2:80 node3:80 {
lb_policy header X-My-Header
}
```
Configure some transport options:
```caddy-d
reverse_proxy localhost:8080 {
transport http {
dial_timeout 2s
response_header_timeout 30s
}
}
```
Reverse proxy to an HTTPS endpoint:
```caddy-d
reverse_proxy https://example.com {
header_up Host {upstream_hostport}
}
```
Strip a path prefix before proxying:
```caddy-d
handle_path /prefix/* {
reverse_proxy localhost:9000
}
```
Replace a path prefix before proxying:
```caddy-d
handle_path /old-prefix/* {
rewrite * /new-prefix{path}
reverse_proxy localhost:9000
}
```
When Caddy is behind another proxy or load balancer whose IP is `123.123.123.123`, which may set `X-Forwarded-*` headers to identify details about the original client request, that downstream proxy must be listed as trusted, otherwise Caddy will ignore those incoming headers:
```caddy-d
reverse_proxy localhost:8080 {
trusted_proxies 123.123.123.123
}
```
X-Accel-Redirect support, i.e. serving static files as requested by the proxy upstream:
```caddy-d
reverse_proxy localhost:8080 {
@accel header X-Accel-Redirect *
handle_response @accel {
root * /path/to/private/files
rewrite * {rp.header.X-Accel-Redirect}
file_server
}
}
```
Custom error page for errors from upstream:
```caddy-d
reverse_proxy localhost:8080 {
@error status 500 503
handle_response @error {
root * /path/to/error/pages
rewrite * /{rp.status_code}.html
file_server
}
}
```
Get backends dynamically from A/AAAA record DNS queries:
```caddy-d
reverse_proxy {
dynamic a example.com 9000
}
```
Get backends dynamically from SRV record DNS queries:
```caddy-d
reverse_proxy {
dynamic srv _api._tcp.example.com
}
```