Setting up nginx

Run the container

Mount a directory of server-block config files rather than the single default one, it scales better as more services get added later.

services:
  nginx:
    image: nginx:latest
    container_name: nginx
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./conf.d:/etc/nginx/conf.d
      - ./certs:/etc/nginx/certs:ro

Write a reverse-proxy server block

Each service gets its own file in conf.d. If the target container is on the same Docker network, its container name works directly as the hostname, no IP address needed.

# conf.d/frigate.conf
server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name frigate.example.com;
    ssl_certificate     /etc/nginx/certs/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certs/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://frigate:5000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }
}

Get a real certificate

A tool like certbot or acme.sh can issue and auto-renew a Let's Encrypt certificate for each domain, dropped into the certs volume mounted above.

Reload after any config change

This re-reads the config without dropping active connections, no full restart needed.

docker exec nginx nginx -s reload