Using nginx as a reverse proxy

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Warning

  1. 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.

  2. 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).

  3. 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.

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

Next, create the nginx.conf file with the reverse proxy configuration. Change us to eu to proxy to our EU Cloud.

nginx.conf
events {
    worker_connections 1024;
}


http {
    server {
        listen 8080;  # Set the port to 8080


        server_name _;  # Accept requests for any domain


        # Specify DNS resolver for variables, this is Google Public DNS
        # You should adjust this to a DNS resolver of your choice
        resolver 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 [2001:4860:4860::8888] [2001:4860:4860::8844] valid=300s;
        resolver_timeout 5s;


        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_ssl_server_name on;


        set $posthog_main_host "us.i.posthog.com"; # Change to "eu.i.posthog.com" for EU
        set $posthog_assets_host "us-assets.i.posthog.com"; # Change to "eu-assets.i.posthog.com" for EU
    
        location ~ ^/static/(.*)$ {
            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;


            proxy_pass https://$posthog_assets_host/static/$1$is_args$args;
            proxy_set_header Host $posthog_assets_host;
        }
    
        location / {
            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;


            proxy_pass https://$posthog_main_host/$1$is_args$args;
            proxy_set_header Host $posthog_main_host;
        }
    }
}

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