--- title: encode (Caddyfile directive) --- # encode Encodes responses using the configured encoding(s). A typical use for encoding is compression. ## Syntax ```caddy-d encode [] { gzip [] zstd minimum_length prefer # response matcher single line syntax match [header []] | [status ] # or response matcher block match { status header [] } } ``` - **<formats...>** is the list of encoding formats to enable. - **gzip** enables Gzip compression, optionally at the specified level. - **zstd** enables Zstandard compression. - **minimum_length** the minimum number of bytes a response should have to be encoded. (Default is 512) - **prefer** is the ordered list of enabled encoding formats to determine, which encoding to choose if the client has no strong preference (via q-factors in the `Accept-Encoding` header). If **prefer** is not specified the first supported encoding from the `Accept-Encoding` header is used. - **match** is a [Response matcher](#responsematcher). Only matching Responses are encoded. The default looks like this: ```caddy-d match { header Content-Type text/* header Content-Type application/json* header Content-Type application/javascript* header Content-Type application/xhtml+xml* header Content-Type application/atom+xml* header Content-Type application/rss+xml* header Content-Type image/svg+xml* } ``` ## 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 Request matcher [header](/docs/caddyfile/matchers#header). ## Examples Enable Gzip compression: ```caddy-d encode gzip ``` Enable Zstandard and Gzip compression: ```caddy-d encode zstd gzip ``` Enable Zstandard and Gzip compression and prefer Zstandard over Gzip: ```caddy-d encode zstd gzip { prefer zstd gzip } ``` Without the **prefer** setting, a `--compressed` HTTP request via [curl](https://curl.se/) (meaning `Accept-Encoding: deflate, gzip, br, zstd` in curl >=7.72.0) would be served with Gzip encoding, because it is the first accepted encoding that both client and server support. With the **prefer** setting Zstandard encoding is served, because the client has no preference but the server (caddy) has.