Caddy Reverse Proxy Stack

Key Features

• Automatic Let's Encrypt certificate provisioning and renewal with zero manual intervention
• Built-in load balancing across multiple backend services with configurable algorithms
• Zero-downtime configuration reloads through Caddy's live config API
• HTTP/3 and HTTP/2 support with automatic protocol negotiation
• On-demand TLS certificate generation for dynamic domain scenarios
• Intelligent health checking and automatic backend failover
• Real-time request information display through whoami service integration
• Single binary deployment with no external dependencies or plugins required

Common Use Cases

• 1Multi-tenant SaaS applications requiring automatic subdomain SSL certificate management
• 2Development and staging environments for testing load balancing strategies
• 3Microservices architecture with multiple backend services behind a single entry point
• 4Legacy application modernization where HTTPS needs to be added without backend changes
• 5Homelab setups requiring reverse proxy for multiple self-hosted services
• 6DevOps training environments for teaching reverse proxy and load balancing concepts
• 7API gateway replacement for simpler architectures not requiring complex routing logic

Prerequisites

• Minimum 256MB RAM available for Caddy proxy operations and certificate management
• Domain name with DNS control for automatic Let's Encrypt certificate validation
• Ports 80 and 443 available and accessible from the internet for HTTPS challenges
• Basic understanding of reverse proxy concepts and HTTP request routing
• Docker host with internet connectivity for Let's Encrypt ACME challenges
• Understanding of Caddyfile syntax for configuring routing rules and backend targets

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  caddy: 
3    image: caddy:alpine
4    container_name: caddy-proxy
5    restart: unless-stopped
6    ports: 
7      - "${CADDY_HTTP_PORT:-80}:80"
8      - "${CADDY_HTTPS_PORT:-443}:443"
9    volumes: 
10      - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro
11      - caddy_data:/data
12      - caddy_config:/config
13
14  backend-1: 
15    image: traefik/whoami:latest
16    container_name: backend-1
17    restart: unless-stopped
18
19  backend-2: 
20    image: traefik/whoami:latest
21    container_name: backend-2
22    restart: unless-stopped
23
24  backend-3: 
25    image: traefik/whoami:latest
26    container_name: backend-3
27    restart: unless-stopped
28
29volumes: 
30  caddy_data: 
31  caddy_config: 

.env Template

1# Caddy Proxy
2CADDY_HTTP_PORT=80
3CADDY_HTTPS_PORT=443

Usage Notes

Individual Services(4 services)

Copy individual services to mix and match with your existing compose files.

caddy:
  image: caddy:alpine
  container_name: caddy-proxy
  restart: unless-stopped
  ports:
    - ${CADDY_HTTP_PORT:-80}:80
    - ${CADDY_HTTPS_PORT:-443}:443
  volumes:
    - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro
    - caddy_data:/data
    - caddy_config:/config

backend-1:
  image: traefik/whoami:latest
  container_name: backend-1
  restart: unless-stopped

backend-2:
  image: traefik/whoami:latest
  container_name: backend-2
  restart: unless-stopped

backend-3:
  image: traefik/whoami:latest
  container_name: backend-3
  restart: unless-stopped

Quick Start

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  caddy:
5    image: caddy:alpine
6    container_name: caddy-proxy
7    restart: unless-stopped
8    ports:
9      - "${CADDY_HTTP_PORT:-80}:80"
10      - "${CADDY_HTTPS_PORT:-443}:443"
11    volumes:
12      - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro
13      - caddy_data:/data
14      - caddy_config:/config
15
16  backend-1:
17    image: traefik/whoami:latest
18    container_name: backend-1
19    restart: unless-stopped
20
21  backend-2:
22    image: traefik/whoami:latest
23    container_name: backend-2
24    restart: unless-stopped
25
26  backend-3:
27    image: traefik/whoami:latest
28    container_name: backend-3
29    restart: unless-stopped
30
31volumes:
32  caddy_data:
33  caddy_config:
34EOF
35
36# 2. Create the .env file
37cat > .env << 'EOF'
38# Caddy Proxy
39CADDY_HTTP_PORT=80
40CADDY_HTTPS_PORT=443
41EOF
42
43# 3. Start the services
44docker compose up -d
45
46# 4. View logs
47docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/caddy-reverse-proxy-stack/run | bash

Troubleshooting