reverse-proxy/docs/architecture/proxy.md

status, last_updated

status	last_updated
reviewed	2026-06-12

Proxy Handler

What It Is

The proxy handler is the core component that receives an incoming HTTP request on the TLS-terminated connection, applies middleware (rate limiting, header injection, body size limits), and forwards it to the upstream service.

Why It Exists

This component replaces nginx's proxy_pass directive. For our use case — one upstream per domain across multiple domains, no load balancing, no HTTP/2 proxying — a custom handler is simpler and more maintainable than a general-purpose proxy library (ADR-002, ADR-010).

Architecture

Incoming HTTPS request (HTTP/1.1 or HTTP/2)
        │
        ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  TLS Listener                                │
│  ALPN protocol detection:                    │
│  - h2  → hyper http2::Builder                │
│  - http/1.1 (or none) → auto::Builder        │
│  ConnectInfo<SocketAddr> from peer_addr       │
└───────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
        │
        ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│  axum Router     │
│  (Host-based)    │
│                  │
│  match Host      │
│  header or       │
│  URI :authority  │
│  on incoming req │
└───────┬─────────┘
        │
        ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│ Rate Limiting    │  ← tower middleware layer
│ Middleware        │
└───────┬─────────┘
        │
        ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│ Proxy Header     │  ← custom middleware / handler
│ Injection        │
│                  │
│ X-Real-IP        │  ← connect_info remote_addr
│ X-Forwarded-For  │  ← replace (edge proxy model)
│ X-Forwarded-Proto │  ← "https" (always, on TLS listener)
│ Host             │  ← original host (already set)
└───────┬─────────┘
        │
        ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│ Body Size Limit  │  ← DefaultBodyLimit(100 MB)
│ Middleware        │
└───────┬─────────┘
        │
        ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│ Reverse Proxy    │  ← hyper Client request forwarding
│ Handler          │
│                  │
│ 1. Build upstream│
│    URI from      │
│    original req   │
│ 2. Forward req   │
│    to upstream    │
│    (HTTP/1.1)    │
│ 3. Stream        │
│    response back  │
└─────────────────┘

Request Flow

1. Host-Based Routing

The axum router matches incoming requests to site definitions from DynamicConfig. Sites are defined per-listener in the TOML configuration for organizational purposes, but at runtime they are collected into a single global routing table. The proxy looks up the host in this global table and either proxies to the upstream or returns 404.

Host matching is case-insensitive per RFC 7230 §2.7.3. The host is normalized to lowercase before matching. Site host values in configuration are normalized to lowercase during validation.

The Host header port component (e.g., git.alk.dev:443) is stripped before matching. Site host values must not include ports.

HTTP/2 host resolution: In HTTP/2, the host is conveyed via the :authority pseudo-header rather than the Host header. Hyper represents this as the URI host. The proxy handler resolves the host by first checking the Host header, then falling back to req.uri().host(). This correctly handles both HTTP/1.1 (which always has a Host header) and HTTP/2 (which uses :authority/URI host). If neither is present, the proxy returns 400 Bad Request. See ADR-023.

The proxy does not filter or restrict paths. All paths and query strings on a known host are forwarded to the upstream without modification.

The proxy does not serve a /health route on the main listener. Health checking is an operational concern handled by the dedicated local health check port (default: 9900, bound to 127.0.0.1 only) and the admin socket's status command — not by intercepting traffic on the public-facing proxy. See ADR-013 and ADR-022.

2. Proxy Header Injection

Headers are injected before forwarding. The proxy is an edge proxy — it sits directly in front of the internet with no trusted proxies upstream. This means the client IP from ConnectInfo<SocketAddr> is the real client IP, and existing X-Forwarded-For headers from the client cannot be trusted.

Header	Value Source	Notes
Host	Original request Host header	Preserved as-is
X-Real-IP	ConnectInfo<SocketAddr> remote IP	Set to client's IP address
X-Forwarded-For	ConnectInfo<SocketAddr> remote IP	Replaced, not appended. The proxy is the edge proxy — there are no trusted proxies upstream, so existing X-Forwarded-For values from the client cannot be trusted.
X-Forwarded-Proto	Determined by which listener port received the request	https for requests on the listener's https_port, http for requests on the listener's http_port. Note: since the TLS-terminating listener only receives HTTPS connections, this is always "https" in practice. The HTTP redirect listener sends a 301 redirect rather than proxying, so X-Forwarded-Proto is not set there. See OQ-11.

ConnectInfo propagation: ConnectInfo<SocketAddr> is populated by extracting TcpStream::peer_addr() before wrapping the connection in TlsStream. Each listener provides this information to its axum Router via axum::ServiceExt::into_make_service_with_connect_info::<SocketAddr>().

3. Request Forwarding

The proxy handler constructs a new request to the upstream:

1. Build the upstream URI using the site's upstream_scheme and upstream address, preserving the original path and query string

2. Copy the request method, headers, and body from the original

3. Inject proxy headers (X-Real-IP, X-Forwarded-For, X-Forwarded-Proto)

4. Remove hop-by-hop headers (Connection, Keep-Alive, Transfer-Encoding, etc.)

5. Send the request via a shared hyper Client instance

6. Stream the response back to the client (chunk-by-chunk, not buffered)

   If the client disconnects while the upstream is still sending, the upstream connection is closed and the event is logged at debug level. If the upstream disconnects mid-stream, the client receives whatever data was already sent and the connection is closed.

The hyper Client is created once at startup and shared via axum's State. It must be configured with (see ADR-017 for rationale):

• Connection pooling (hyper default behavior)
• HTTP/1.1 only for upstream connections (HTTP/2 proxying to upstreams is out of scope; see ADR-023 for the distinction between client-facing HTTP/2 and upstream HTTP/2)
• No redirect following (proxies should not follow redirects)
• Separate connect timeout and request timeout (see ADR-015, ADR-017)

Two client instances are created at startup:

• HTTP client: For upstream connections using http:// scheme
• HTTPS client: For upstream connections using https:// scheme (using hyper-rustls with system native TLS root certificates for certificate validation)

Per-site timeout overrides are available via upstream_connect_timeout_secs and upstream_request_timeout_secs in SiteConfig (see ADR-015). When not specified, defaults of 5s connect and 60s request are used. Both timeouts are enforced using tokio::time::timeout, with the connect timeout nested inside the request timeout to ensure the overall deadline is respected.

4. Header Handling

The proxy must handle request and response headers correctly to avoid security issues and protocol violations.

Headers removed before forwarding (hop-by-hop headers per RFC 2616 §13.5.1):

• Connection
• Keep-Alive
• Proxy-Authorization
• Proxy-Authenticate
• TE
• Trailers
• Transfer-Encoding
• Upgrade

These headers are connection-specific and must not be forwarded to the upstream. Removing Proxy-Authorization and Proxy-Authenticate prevents credential leakage.

Response headers removed:

• Server: The upstream's Server header is intentionally removed as a defense-in-depth measure. The proxy does not add its own Server header either. This hides upstream server identity from clients.

Headers added or modified:

See the Proxy Header Injection section above for the full list of proxy headers (X-Real-IP, X-Forwarded-For, X-Forwarded-Proto, Host).

Headers NOT added in Phase 1:

• Via: Not added. The proxy is an edge proxy and Via is primarily for tracking proxy chains. Can be added in Phase 2 if needed.

Response headers:

Upstream response headers are forwarded to the client with the following exceptions:

• Hop-by-hop headers listed above are removed
• The Server header is removed (defense-in-depth: hiding upstream identity)
• The proxy does not add a Server header to responses

5. Error Handling

All error responses use plain text bodies with no proxy version or identity information. No upstream error details are included. Response format:

• Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
• Body: Brief status text matching the HTTP status (e.g., Bad Gateway for 502)

Upstream Condition	Response	Body	Notes
Upstream reachable	Stream response as-is	(upstream body)	Headers, status, body all forwarded (minus hop-by-hop and Server headers)
Upstream unreachable	502 Bad Gateway	Bad Gateway	Logged at warn level
Upstream connect timeout	504 Gateway Timeout	Gateway Timeout	Connect phase timed out; logged at warn level
Upstream request timeout	504 Gateway Timeout	Gateway Timeout	Full request timed out; logged at warn level
Upstream TLS validation failure	502 Bad Gateway	Bad Gateway	Upstream HTTPS cert validation failed
Request body too large	413 Payload Too Large	Payload Too Large	From DefaultBodyLimit middleware
Rate limit exceeded	429 Too Many Requests	Too Many Requests	Logged at info level
Unknown Host header	404 Not Found	Not Found	No matching site definition
Missing Host header (and no URI host)	400 Bad Request	Bad Request	Required for routing; HTTP/2 clients use :authority

6. HTTP → HTTPS Redirect

A separate HTTP listener on port 80 (per listener) handles redirect. It reads the Host header from the incoming request and returns a 301 Permanent Redirect to the HTTPS equivalent URL.

The redirect URL is constructed as: https://{host}:{https_port}/{path}?{query}

Where:

• {host} is the hostname portion of the Host header (port stripped)
• {https_port} is the listener's https_port, omitted if it's 443
• {path} and {query} are preserved from the original request

If the incoming request has no Host header, the proxy returns 400 Bad Request.

Each listener has its own HTTP redirect on its own bind address.

Upstream Connection

The upstream connection scheme defaults to http:// since the proxy and backend services typically run on the same host (e.g., 127.0.0.1:3000) or the same Docker network (e.g., gitea:3000). The upstream_scheme field in each site's configuration allows specifying https:// for upstreams that require TLS (e.g., separate hosts or secure internal services).

For the initial deployment, upstream connections use plain HTTP (e.g., git.alk.dev → gitea:3000, alk.dev → app:8080) since TLS between the proxy and backend services on the same Docker network or loopback is unnecessary.

When upstream_scheme is "https", the proxy validates the upstream's TLS certificate using the system's native TLS root certificates (via rustls root cert store loaded by rustls-native-certs). Certificate validation failures result in a 502 Bad Gateway response. No certificate pinning or custom CA support is provided in Phase 1.

Two shared hyper Client instances handle upstream connections:

• HTTP client (Client<HttpConnector, Body>): For http:// upstreams
• HTTPS client (Client<HttpsConnector<HttpConnector>, Body>): For https:// upstreams, using hyper-rustls with system native certificates

Both clients enforce the per-site connect timeout (default 5s) at the TCP level via HttpConnector::set_connect_timeout() and the overall request timeout (default 60s) via tokio::time::timeout.

Body Size Limit

axum's DefaultBodyLimit layer sets the maximum request body size. The default of 100 MB (104,857,600 bytes) matches our current nginx configuration and accommodates Gitea's push operations with large pack files (see ADR-018). In Phase 1, the body limit is a global setting; Phase 2 may add per-site body limits.

Design Decisions

All design decisions are documented as ADRs in decisions/.

ADR	Decision	Summary
002	Custom proxy handler	One upstream per domain — simpler than a general proxy library
007	Custom structured log format	key=value pairs with RATE_LIMIT prefix for fail2ban
010	Multi-site in Phase 1	Multiple domains from initial release
015	Per-site upstream timeouts with defaults	5s connect / 60s request defaults, per-site overrides
017	Upstream connection defaults	HTTP/1.1, no redirects, connection pooling
018	Request body size limit	100 MB default matching nginx, Gitea push compatibility
021	X-Forwarded-For edge proxy model	Replace, don't append — proxy is the edge, no trusted upstream proxies
023	HTTP/2 client-facing support	ALPN-based protocol detection; HTTP/2 to clients, HTTP/1.1 to upstreams

Open Questions

Open questions are tracked in open-questions.md. All questions affecting this document have been resolved:

• OQ-06: Should upstream timeouts be configurable per-site? (resolved — ADR-015: per-site timeout overrides with defaults)
• OQ-08: Should the /health path use a less common endpoint to avoid upstream collision? (resolved — ADR-022: no /health route on the main listener; health checking is via port 9900 and admin socket only)
• OQ-09: How should upstream_connect_timeout_secs be enforced? (resolved — two-phase timeout with tokio::time::timeout; connect timeout nested inside request timeout; TCP-level set_connect_timeout on connector)