JSON access logging is enabled with the shb.nginx.accessLog option:

{
  shb.nginx.accessLog = true;
}

Looking at the systemd logs (journalctl -fu nginx) will show for example:

nginx[969]: server nginx:
  {
    "remote_addr":"192.168.1.1",
    "remote_user":"-",
    "time_local":"29/Dec/2025:14:22:41 +0000",
    "request":"POST /api/firstfactor HTTP/2.0",
    "request_length":"264",
    "server_name":"auth_example_com",
    "status":"200",
    "bytes_sent":"855",
    "body_bytes_sent":"60",
    "referrer":"-",
    "user_agent":"Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:140.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/140.0",
    "gzip_ration":"-",
    "post":"{\x22username\x22:\x22charlie\x22,\x22password\x22:\x22CharliePassword\x22,\x22keepMeLoggedIn\x22:false,\x22targetURL\x22:\x22https://f.example.com/\x22,\x22requestMethod\x22:null}",
    "upstream_addr":"127.0.0.1:9091",
    "upstream_status":"200",
    "request_time":"0.873",
    "upstream_response_time":"0.873",
    "upstream_connect_time":"0.001",
    "upstream_header_time":"0.872"
  }

This will log the body of POST queries so it should only be enabled for debug logging.

Debug logging is enabled with the shb.nginx.debugLog option:

{
  shb.nginx.debugLog = true;
}

If enabled, it sets:

error_log stderr warn;

Easy upstream proxy setup is done with the shb.nginx.vhosts.*.upstream option:

{
  shb.nginx.vhosts = [
    {
      domain = "example.com";
      subdomain = "mysubdomain";
      upstream = "http://127.0.0.1:9090";
    }
  ];
}

This will set also a few headers. Some are shown here and others please see in the nginx module:

This module integrates with the SSL Generator Contract to setup HTTPs with the shb.nginx.vhosts.*.ssl option:

{
  shb.nginx.vhosts = [
    {
      domain = "example.com";
      subdomain = "mysubdomain";
      ssl = config.shb.certs.certs.letsencrypt.${domain};;
    }
  ];

  shb.certs.certs.letsencrypt.${domain} = {
    inherit domain;
  };
}

For services provided by SelfHostBlocks that do not handle OIDC integration, this block can provide forward authentication which still allows the service to still be protected by an SSO server.

The user could still be required to authenticate to the service itself, although some services can automatically users authorized by Authelia.

Integrating with this block is done with the following code:

shb.<services>.authEndpoint = "https://${config.shb.authelia.subdomain}.${config.shb.authelia.domain}";

Forward authentication is when Nginx talks with the SSO service directly and the user is authenticated before reaching the upstream application.

The SSO service responds with the username, group and more information about the user. This is then forwarded to the upstream application by Nginx.

Note that every request is authenticated this way with the SSO server so it involves more hops than a direct OIDC integration.

{
  shb.nginx.vhosts = [
    {
      domain = "example.com";
      subdomain = "mysubdomain";
      authEndpoint = "authelia.example.com";
      autheliaRules = [
        [
          # Protect /admin endpoint with 2FA
          # and only allow access to admin users.
          {
            domain = "myapp.example.com";
            policy = "two_factor";
            subject = [ "group:service_admin" ];
            resources = [
              "^/admin"
            ];
          }
          # Leave /api endpoint open - assumes an API key is used to protect it.
          {
            domain = "myapp.example.com";
            policy = "bypass";
            resources = [
              "^/api"
            ];
          },
          # Protect rest of app with 1FA
          # and allow access to normal and admin users.
          {
            domain = "myapp.example.com";
            policy = "one_factor";
            subject = ["group:service_user"];
          },
        ]
      ];
    }
  ];
}

If PHP is used with fastCGI, extra headers must be added by enabling the shb.nginx.vhosts.*.phpForwardAuth option.

To add extra configuration to a virtual host, use the shb.nginx.vhosts.*.extraConfig option. This can be used to add headers, for example:

{
  shb.nginx.vhosts = [
    {
      domain = "example.com";
      subdomain = "mysubdomain";
      extraConfig = ''
        add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload";
      '';
    }
  ];
}