docs: document Cloudflare-fronted HTTP-only Caddy topology
The live production setup is Cloudflare -> Caddy (HTTP :80) -> SWS, which differed from the DNS-01 topology the doc previously assumed. Add a 'Deployment topologies' overview and a dedicated Cloudflare-fronted section pointing at the committed root Caddyfile, covering reverse_proxy, encode, security headers, and Cloudflare trusted_proxies. Label the existing Compose/K8s examples as the DNS-01 alternative.
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# Caddy as a Reverse Proxy
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This document describes how to run [Caddy](https://caddyserver.com/) as a
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reverse proxy in front of the blog. It covers both deployment targets used by
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this project: the Kubernetes (Raspberry Pi) cluster and the Docker Compose host
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(Gimli).
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reverse proxy in front of the blog.
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It uses the custom [`caddy-cf`](https://github.com/ahmzaa/caddy-cf) image
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(`ghcr.io/ahmzaa/caddy-cf:latest`) — a Caddy build with the **Cloudflare DNS
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module** baked in. The stock Caddy image cannot solve the ACME **DNS-01**
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challenge for Cloudflare; this custom build can, which is what lets us obtain
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certificates without exposing ports `80`/`443` to the public internet.
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module** baked in.
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## Deployment topologies
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There are two supported ways to run Caddy in front of the blog. **Pick one.**
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### 1. Cloudflare in front (current production) — HTTP only
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```
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Cloudflare (terminates TLS) -> Caddy (HTTP :80) -> SWS (blog:80)
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```
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Cloudflare proxies the domain and provides the public HTTPS certificate, so
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Caddy only needs to serve plain **HTTP on :80** and reverse-proxy to the blog.
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Caddy does **not** provision a TLS cert in this mode. This is the live setup and
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its config is the committed [`Caddyfile`](../Caddyfile) at the repo root —
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see [Cloudflare-fronted setup](#cloudflare-fronted-setup-http-only) below.
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Set the Cloudflare **SSL/TLS mode to "Full"** so the Cloudflare→origin hop is
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still encrypted at the network layer (e.g. over Netbird), even though Caddy's
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listener is HTTP.
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### 2. Caddy terminates TLS via Cloudflare DNS-01
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```
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Client -> Caddy (HTTPS :443, ACME DNS-01) -> SWS (blog:80)
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```
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Caddy obtains/renews the certificate itself using the ACME **DNS-01** challenge
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through the Cloudflare API — no inbound `80`/`443` from the public internet is
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required, which suits a Netbird-only setup with no Cloudflare proxy in front.
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The stock Caddy image cannot do this; the `caddy-cf` build bundles the
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Cloudflare DNS provider plugin. See the Docker Compose / Kubernetes examples
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later in this document.
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## Why a reverse proxy?
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@@ -21,7 +50,7 @@ the reverse proxy so that each layer owns exactly one job:
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| Concern | Owned by | Notes |
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| -------------------- | -------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
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| TLS / HTTPS certs | Caddy | Automatic certs via Cloudflare **DNS-01** challenge |
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| TLS / HTTPS certs | Cloudflare *or* Caddy | Cloudflare in topology 1; Caddy (DNS-01) in topology 2 |
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| Compression (gzip/zstd) | Caddy | `encode` directive; SWS compression is off |
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| Security headers | Caddy | Single source of truth, avoids duplicate headers |
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| Serving static files | SWS | Reads from `/public`, sets `Cache-Control`/`ETag` |
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@@ -50,11 +79,55 @@ Whatever the deployment, the SWS origin exposes:
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- **Health endpoint:** `GET /health` → `200 OK`
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- **Cache headers:** already set by SWS (Caddy should pass them through, not override)
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Caddy only needs to terminate TLS (via Cloudflare DNS-01), add compression +
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Caddy only needs to handle TLS (or let Cloudflare do it), add compression +
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security headers, and forward requests to that origin.
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---
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## Cloudflare-fronted setup (HTTP only)
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**This is the current production topology.** The canonical config is the
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committed [`Caddyfile`](../Caddyfile) at the repo root; copy it to the
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`caddy_cf` host and reload. Highlights:
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- **`http://blog.ahmza.com`** — the explicit `http://` scheme binds Caddy to
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`:80` only and stops it from trying to provision a TLS certificate (Cloudflare
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already serves HTTPS to visitors).
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- **`reverse_proxy blog:80`** — proxies to the blog (SWS) container by its
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compose service name. Caddy and the blog container must share a Docker
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network. Omitting this responder makes Caddy return an empty `NOP` response —
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i.e. a **blank page**.
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- **`encode zstd gzip`** — compression happens here (SWS has it disabled).
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- **`header { ... }`** — security headers (SWS has them disabled).
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- **`trusted_proxies static <Cloudflare ranges>`** + **`client_ip_headers
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Cf-Connecting-Ip X-Forwarded-For`** — so the real visitor IP is used for
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logging/matchers, but only when the request genuinely comes from Cloudflare
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(prevents header spoofing from any other source). The ranges come from
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<https://www.cloudflare.com/ips-v4/> and <https://www.cloudflare.com/ips-v6/>;
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keep them in sync when Cloudflare updates them. If `caddy-cf` is rebuilt with
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the `caddy-cloudflare-ip` plugin, the static list can be replaced with
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`trusted_proxies cloudflare`.
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Deploy and reload:
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```bash
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# Put the Caddyfile in place on the caddy_cf host (e.g. into the ./conf mount),
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# then reload without downtime:
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docker exec caddy_cf caddy reload --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
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# Verify from the host (expect HTTP 200, Content-Encoding: gzip, X-Frame-Options):
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curl -sI -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" http://localhost/ | grep -iE 'HTTP|content-encoding|x-frame'
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```
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> **Cloudflare SSL/TLS mode:** set it to **Full** so the Cloudflare→origin hop
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> is encrypted at the network layer (e.g. over Netbird), even though Caddy's
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> listener is plain HTTP.
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---
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The remaining sections describe **topology 2** (Caddy terminates TLS itself via
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the Cloudflare DNS-01 challenge) for setups without a Cloudflare proxy in front.
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## Docker Compose (Gimli)
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Run Caddy and the blog container on the same Docker network. Caddy reaches the
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