Nginx Config Generator

Build nginx.conf server blocks interactively. Choose a template, toggle features, and copy the result. 100% client-side — nothing leaves your browser.

Server Mode

Core Settings

server_name

listen port

root directory

client_max_body_size

access_log path

error_log path

Generated Config

nginx.conf

# Generated by RawOps.dev — Nginx Config Generator
# Mode: static

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name example.com;
    client_max_body_size 10M;

    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

    location / {
        root /var/www/html;
        index index.html index.htm;
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

Quick Recipes

Click a recipe to populate the form with a common nginx configuration.

Nginx Configuration Guide

Nginx is the world’s most popular web server and reverse proxy, powering over 30% of all websites. Configuration is done through text files (typically /etc/nginx/nginx.conf or per-site files in /etc/nginx/sites-available/) using a declarative block-based syntax.

Server Block Structure

Each nginx server block (also called a “virtual host”) defines how nginx handles requests for a specific domain and port. The basic structure is:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;

    location / {
        root /var/www/html;
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

Common Directives

Directive	Context	Description
listen	server	Port and optional SSL flag
server_name	server	Domain name(s) for this block
root	server, location	Document root directory
proxy_pass	location	Backend URL for reverse proxy
try_files	location	Fallback chain for file lookups
ssl_certificate	server	Path to SSL certificate chain
gzip	http, server	Enable gzip compression
limit_req_zone	http	Define rate limiting zone

Reverse Proxy Setup

The most common use of nginx in modern architectures is as a reverse proxy in front of application servers (Node.js, Python, Go, etc.). Key headers to forward: X-Real-IP, X-Forwarded-For, and X-Forwarded-Proto. For WebSocket support, add proxy_http_version 1.1 and the Upgrade /Connection headers. For more advanced load balancing with health checks, sticky sessions, and stick-table rate limiting, see the HAProxy Config Generator.

SSL/TLS Best Practices

Use TLS 1.2+ — disable SSLv3, TLS 1.0, and TLS 1.1
Enable HSTS — force browsers to always use HTTPS
OCSP stapling — improves SSL handshake performance
Let’s Encrypt — free certificates with certbot auto-renewal
HTTP/2 — enabled automatically with http2 on in nginx 1.25.1+
HTTP/3 (QUIC) — faster connections with 0-RTT handshakes, requires nginx 1.25.0+ built with --with-http_v3_module
Inspect certificates — use our SSL Certificate Decoder to verify certificate chains, check expiry dates, and decode PEM/PFX files

Performance Tips

Gzip compression — reduce transfer size by 60-80% for text content
Static asset caching — set long expires for JS/CSS/images with cache-busting filenames
client_max_body_size — increase for file uploads (default is only 1M)
Rate limiting — protect APIs from abuse with limit_req_zone

Privacy First

All configuration is generated entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your server names, paths, IP addresses, and infrastructure details are never sent to any server. This tool has zero backend dependencies.