Running Behind a Proxy

If you're running PostHog behind a proxy, there are a few more things you need to do to make sure PostHog (specifically the toolbar, which runs on your own site) works.

Setup

If PostHog is running behind a proxy, you need to do 2 things:

1. Make sure you have the IS_BEHIND_PROXY environment variable set to True.
2. If deploying with Docker, use the docker-compose.proxy.yml file. This is the exact same as the docker-compose.yml file with one line removed, preventing a port conflict between the PostHog Docker container and the proxy.

NGINX Config (Suggested)

You need to make sure your proxy server is sending X-Forwarded-For headers. For NGINX, that config should look something like this:

    location / {
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
    }

Apache2 Config

You need the proxy proxy_http and proxy_html modules enabled. To do this, run sudo a2enmod proxy proxy_http proxy_html.

Make sure SSL is enabled, and include the X-Forwarded-Proto header so that PostHog knows it.

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ProxyPass / http://0.0.0.0:8000/
    RequestHeader set X-Forwarded-Proto expr=%{REQUEST_SCHEME}
    # SSL & other config here
</VirtualHost>

Infinite Redirect

Some users have reported getting infinite redirects when running behind a proxy. Make sure the X-Forwarded-Proto header is set to https if you have HTTPS enabled. Alternatively, you can set the DISABLE_SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT variable to make PostHog run using HTTP.