Caddy Https Setup

Adding HTTPS with Caddy

This guide shows how to add automatic HTTPS to your Faster Chat deployment using Caddy.

Why Caddy?

13MB Docker image (Alpine-based)
Automatic HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt (zero config)
Auto-renewal of certificates
HTTP/3 support built-in
Perfect for one-click deployments

Quick Start

Development/Localhost (HTTP)

The included Caddyfile already works for localhost:

# Start with Caddy
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.caddy.yml up -d

# Access at
http://localhost

Production (Automatic HTTPS)

Point your domain to your server (DNS A record)
Edit Caddyfile - uncomment and update the production block:

chat.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy faster-chat:8787

    # Security headers (already configured)
    header {
        Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"
        X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
        X-Frame-Options "DENY"
        Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin"
    }

    encode gzip zstd
}

Launch with Caddy:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.caddy.yml up -d

That’s it! Caddy automatically:
- Obtains SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt
- Renews certificates before expiry
- Redirects HTTP → HTTPS
- Enables HTTP/2 and HTTP/3

Configuration Options

Custom Port

If you need a different port for the app:

# Create .env file
echo "APP_PORT=9000" > .env
echo "HOST_PORT=9000" >> .env

# Rebuild
docker compose up -d --build

Multiple Domains

Add more blocks to Caddyfile:

app1.example.com {
    reverse_proxy faster-chat:8787
}

app2.example.com {
    reverse_proxy faster-chat:8787
}

Local Development with HTTPS

For testing HTTPS locally:

chat.local {
    tls internal  # Self-signed cert
    reverse_proxy faster-chat:8787
}

Add to /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1 chat.local

One-Click Deploy Configuration

For platforms like Railway, Render, or DigitalOcean:

Set environment variable:
```
DOMAIN=your-app-url.railway.app
```

Update Caddyfile to read from env:

{$DOMAIN} {
    reverse_proxy faster-chat:8787
}

Deploy! Caddy handles the rest.

Troubleshooting

Port 80/443 Already in Use

Check what’s using them:

sudo lsof -i :80
sudo lsof -i :443

Stop conflicting services (nginx, apache):

sudo systemctl stop nginx
sudo systemctl stop apache2

Certificate Issues

View Caddy logs:

docker compose logs caddy

Force certificate renewal:

docker exec -it faster-chat-caddy-1 caddy reload --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Firewall

Ensure ports are open:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/udp

# RHEL/CentOS
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Image Size Comparison

Component	Size
Faster Chat App	~428 MB
Caddy Alpine	~13 MB
Total	~441 MB

Only 3% overhead for automatic HTTPS - totally worth it for production deployments!

Production Checklist

Domain points to your server (DNS configured)
Ports 80 and 443 are accessible (firewall configured)
Caddyfile has your actual domain
Environment variables set (if using)
Container started with Caddy compose file
Test HTTPS access (should auto-redirect from HTTP)
Check SSL rating: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/