Using nginx as a reverse proxy

Warning

The following self-hosted proxy isn't provided by PostHog, so we can't take responsibility for it! If unsure, we recommend using our managed reverse proxy.
If you are using the EU cloud then use eu instead of us in all domains (e.g. us.i.posthog.com -> eu.i.posthog.com).
Avoid using generic or common path names like /analytics, /tracking, /ingest, or /posthog for your reverse proxy. They will most likely be blocked. Instead, use a non-obvious path name or something random and unique to your application that's unlikely to appear in a filter list.

Creating a nginx container

You can use nginx as a reverse proxy. To do this, first create a Dockerfile to build a nginx container:

dockerfile

FROM nginx:alpine

COPY nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.template

CMD ["sh", "-c", "envsubst '\\$POSTHOG_CLOUD_REGION' < /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.template > /etc/nginx/nginx.conf && nginx -g 'daemon off;'"]

Next, create the nginx.conf file with the reverse proxy configuration.

nginx.conf

worker_processes auto;
events { worker_connections 1024; }
http {
    sendfile on;
    server {
        listen 8080;
        server_name _;
        
        # DNS resolver - increased cache time for stability
        resolver 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 [2001:4860:4860::8888] [2001:4860:4860::8844] valid=300s;
        resolver_timeout 5s;
        
        # Static assets - trailing slashes preserve path mapping
        location /static/ {
            proxy_pass https://${POSTHOG_CLOUD_REGION}-assets.i.posthog.com/static/;
            proxy_set_header Host "${POSTHOG_CLOUD_REGION}-assets.i.posthog.com";
            proxy_ssl_server_name on;
            
            proxy_hide_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin';
            proxy_hide_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods';
            proxy_hide_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers';
            proxy_hide_header 'Access-Control-Expose-Headers';
            
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, OPTIONS' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'DNT,User-Agent,X-Requested-With,If-Modified-Since,Cache-Control,Content-Type,Range' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Expose-Headers' 'Content-Length,Content-Range' always;
        }
        
        # Main API endpoints
        location / {
            proxy_pass https://${POSTHOG_CLOUD_REGION}.i.posthog.com;
            proxy_set_header Host "${POSTHOG_CLOUD_REGION}.i.posthog.com";
            proxy_ssl_server_name on;
            
            proxy_hide_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin';
            proxy_hide_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods';
            proxy_hide_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers';
            proxy_hide_header 'Access-Control-Expose-Headers';
            
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, OPTIONS' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'DNT,User-Agent,X-Requested-With,If-Modified-Since,Cache-Control,Content-Type,Range' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Expose-Headers' 'Content-Length,Content-Range' always;
        }
    }
}

Running the nginx container

Terminal

docker build -t posthog-nginx . 
docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 -e POSTHOG_CLOUD_REGION=us posthog-nginx

Now you can connect to PostHog through this proxy by configuring the PostHog client to use http://localhost:8080.

JavaScript

posthog.init(<ph_project_api_key>, {
    api_host: localhost:8080,
    ui_host: 'https://us.posthog.com', // for the toolbar to work
    // for EU Cloud
    // ui_host: 'https://eu.posthog.com',
});

Using nginx as a reverse proxy

Contents

Creating a nginx container

Running the nginx container

Community questions

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