Caddy Reverse Proxy

Add, manage, and troubleshoot Caddy reverse proxy routes for local apps via wildcard subdomains.

Caddy — Wildcard Reverse Proxy for Local Apps

Routes *.YOUR_DOMAIN subdomains to local services over HTTPS via Caddy reverse proxy with automatic Let's Encrypt certificates. Designed for Tailscale-only access (no public exposure).

DNS provider: This skill uses Vercel DNS for DNS-01 ACME challenges. If you use a different DNS provider, swap the caddy-dns/vercel plugin and TLS snippet for your provider's equivalent (see caddy-dns).

Add a New App

1. Create a background service (LaunchAgent on macOS, systemd on Linux) — see reference.md for templates
2. Add to Caddyfile (~/.config/caddy/Caddyfile):

   appname.YOUR_DOMAIN {
       import vercel_tls
       reverse_proxy localhost:31XX
   }
   

   Also add a <li> entry in the dashboard HTML block at the top.
3. Reload Caddy:

   ~/.local/bin/caddy reload --config ~/.config/caddy/Caddyfile --address localhost:2019
   

   TLS cert provisioning takes 30–60 seconds (DNS-01 challenge).
4. If it connects to OpenClaw Gateway — see OPENCLAW.md in this folder for gateway-specific config.

Quick Dev Servers

Companion skill: dev-serve — one-command dev server + Caddy routing.

dev-serve up ~/projects/myapp        # → https://myapp.YOUR_DOMAIN
dev-serve down myapp
dev-serve ls

Reload / Restart

# Reload config (no restart, no sudo)
~/.local/bin/caddy reload --config ~/.config/caddy/Caddyfile --address localhost:2019

# Full restart
# macOS:
sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.caddyserver.caddy.plist
sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.caddyserver.caddy.plist
# Linux:
systemctl --user restart caddy

Troubleshoot

• Cert not issuing: tail -50 /var/log/caddy-error.log | grep -i error — likely expired Vercel API token
• DNS not resolving: dig +short appname.YOUR_DOMAIN — should return your Tailscale IP
• TLS error (curl exit 35): Cert hasn't provisioned yet, wait 30-60s

For full reference (example apps, key files, build instructions): see reference.md. For OpenClaw gateway integration: see OPENCLAW.md.