The proxy can be configured via command line flags, environment variables, or a configuration file. Command line flags take precedence over environment variables, which take precedence over the configuration file.
## Configuration File
Create a YAML or JSON file and pass it with `-config`:
```bash
proxy serve -config config.yaml
```
See `config.example.yaml` in the repository root for a complete example.
| `base_url` | `PROXY_BASE_URL` | `-base-url` | `http://localhost:8080` | Public URL package managers use to reach this proxy |
| `ui_base_url` | `PROXY_UI_URL` | - | (defaults to `base_url`) | Public URL where the web UI is reached. Set separately when the UI lives behind a different hostname than package endpoints (e.g. public domain vs Docker network alias). Used for canonical/og:url tags and the install guide banner. The proxy still serves package endpoints on the same listener, so any reverse proxy fronting the UI publicly should restrict the public route to `PathPrefix(/ui)` to avoid exposing package endpoints. |
| `trust_forwarded_for` | `PROXY_TRUST_FORWARDED_FOR` | - | `false` | Attribute requests to the leftmost `X-Forwarded-For` entry instead of the TCP peer address, in the structured log, the access log and the request-source table on `/ui/analytics`. |
| `ui_request_sources` | `PROXY_UI_REQUEST_SOURCES` | - | `false` | Show the request-source table on `/ui/analytics`, which reports caller addresses, the tool each ran and how much each pulled. |
`storage.max_size` counts cached artifacts only. An artifact replaced by a refetch stays in storage for at least an hour, or `storage.direct_serve_ttl` if longer, so requests already reading it can finish, and storage use can exceed the limit by what was replaced in that time.
With `storage.cache_artifacts: false` the proxy streams every artifact download from upstream to the client and stores no artifacts. Metadata is still filtered and cached, so cooldown and the denylist apply as usual, and the database still holds the publish times cooldown needs. Use it when another caching layer, such as an Artifactory remote repository, sits in front of the proxy and caching artifacts twice only costs storage.
```yaml
storage:
cache_artifacts: false
```
Every download is a fresh upstream fetch, and concurrent requests for the same artifact are not combined. Artifacts with a digest known up front (OCI blobs, Swift archives, Helm charts) are verified while streaming: the response is sent chunked, and on a mismatch the connection is aborted before the response completes so the client never receives a tampered artifact as a good one. The same happens when the upstream connection fails mid-download.
`cache_artifacts: false` cannot be combined with `scanning.enabled`, `storage.direct_serve` or `mirror_api`, which all need stored artifacts, and the `mirror` command refuses to run with it.
Every cache hit updates the artifact's hit count and last-access time, which the stats pages and LRU eviction use. Rather than writing each hit as its own transaction, the proxy counts hits in memory and writes them together every `hit_flush_interval`. SQLite allows one writer at a time, and the proxy uses a single SQLite connection, so with a write per hit, concurrent downloads queue behind each other.
```yaml
database:
hit_flush_interval: "1s"
```
| Config | Environment | Flag | Description |
|--------|-------------|------|-------------|
| `database.hit_flush_interval` | `PROXY_DATABASE_HIT_FLUSH_INTERVAL` | - | How often batched hits are written (default `1s`). `0` writes each hit as it happens. |
Hits not yet written are lost if the process is killed; a normal shutdown writes them.
The optional access log records client requests and each HTTP exchange with an upstream registry. It is always written as JSONL, with one JSON object per line. Records for the same client request share a `request_id`.
```yaml
access_log:
path: "/var/log/proxy/access.jsonl"
```
| Config | Environment | Flag | Description |
|--------|-------------|------|-------------|
| `access_log.path` | `PROXY_ACCESS_LOG_PATH` | `-access-log` | File to append JSONL records to; empty disables the log |
Each client request record carries `remote_addr` (the TCP peer, host and port), `remote_ip` (the address the request is attributed to), `user_agent`, `client` (the tool name derived from the User-Agent), `ecosystem`, and `bytes` (the response body size written to the client). The structured log carries the same `client`, `remote` and `remote_ip` fields.
`remote_ip` follows the top-level `trust_forwarded_for` setting. Enable that only when the proxy sits behind a load balancer or ingress that sets the header: any client can send `X-Forwarded-For`, so behind such a hop it is the only way to see the real caller, but in front of one it lets a caller choose what address it is logged as. It can also choose a fresh one per request, which fills the bounded source table on `/ui/analytics` and evicts the genuine callers from it. `remote_addr` is unaffected and always records the TCP peer.
The parent directory must exist and be writable when the proxy starts. A newly created log file is readable and writable only by the proxy process owner.
A request that receives a rate limit response from an upstream can produce records like these:
Upstream retries and OCI authentication calls are separate `upstream` records, so the log preserves every status returned over the wire. Network failures have an `error` field and no `status_code`. URL credentials, query strings, and fragments are omitted from both upstream URLs and client paths.
Each upstream used by a built-in package route can be set in YAML or JSON under `upstream`, or with its matching environment variable. Existing installations keep the same public upstreams by default. Trailing slashes are ignored.
Private, ULA, CGNAT, and loopback addresses are rejected by default. Add each private upstream hostname or IP address to `upstream.allow_private_hosts`. The matching environment variable accepts a comma-separated list. Loopback upstreams also require `upstream.allow_loopback: true`. That setting permits upstream requests and redirects to reach any loopback address.
Configure authentication for private upstream registries. The same authentication-aware client is used for metadata and artifact downloads, and credentials can reference environment variables using `${VAR_NAME}` syntax.
OCI registries that return a Bearer challenge from a `/v2/{repository}/…` endpoint are handled automatically. The proxy discovers the token realm from `WWW-Authenticate`, applies any configured credentials for the token URL, and reuses the scoped token until shortly before it expires.
Private ECR registries issue authorization tokens that expire after 12 hours. The `ecr` auth type calls `ecr:GetAuthorizationToken` on demand, caches the result, and refreshes it shortly before expiry, so no static credential appears in the config file:
AWS credentials are resolved by the SDK's default chain, which covers EKS IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA), EC2/ECS instance profiles, `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` / `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY` environment variables, and `~/.aws/credentials`. The IAM identity needs the `ecr:GetAuthorizationToken` action plus the usual `ecr:BatchGetImage` / `ecr:GetDownloadUrlForLayer` permissions on the target repositories. The region is inferred from private ECR IPv4, dual-stack, and FIPS hostnames. For other endpoint formats, set `region` explicitly or configure a default region for the SDK.
Auth keys must be absolute URLs. Matching compares the scheme, host, effective port, and path-segment prefix, preventing credentials for `registry.example.com` from being sent to a lookalike host such as `registry.example.com.evil.test`. The longest matching scope wins, so you can configure different credentials for different paths:
The `/gradle` endpoint supports optional safeguards for upload control and cache retention.
```yaml
gradle:
build_cache:
read_only: false
max_upload_size: "100MB"
max_age: "168h"
max_size: "20GB"
sweep_interval: "10m"
```
| Config | Environment | Description |
|--------|-------------|-------------|
| `gradle.build_cache.read_only` | `PROXY_GRADLE_BUILD_CACHE_READ_ONLY` | Disable PUT uploads and keep GET/HEAD read-only |
| `gradle.build_cache.max_upload_size` | `PROXY_GRADLE_BUILD_CACHE_MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE` | Maximum accepted PUT body size (must be > 0) |
| `gradle.build_cache.max_age` | `PROXY_GRADLE_BUILD_CACHE_MAX_AGE` | Delete entries older than this duration (default `168h`, set `0` to disable) |
| `gradle.build_cache.max_size` | `PROXY_GRADLE_BUILD_CACHE_MAX_SIZE` | Total size cap for `_gradle/http-build-cache`, deleting oldest first (`0` disables) |
| `gradle.build_cache.sweep_interval` | `PROXY_GRADLE_BUILD_CACHE_SWEEP_INTERVAL` | Frequency for background eviction sweeps |
`max_age` and `max_size` are independent and can be combined. When both are set, age-based eviction runs first, then size-based eviction trims remaining entries oldest-first.
The cooldown feature hides package versions published too recently, giving the community time to spot malicious releases before they reach your projects. When a version is within its cooldown period, it's stripped from metadata responses so package managers won't install it.
Package PURL keys are normalized to canonical form before matching, so `pkg:npm/@babel/core` and `pkg:npm/%40babel/core` are equivalent, as are `pkg:pypi/Django` and `pkg:pypi/django`. If both forms configure the same package, the canonical entry wins.
`package_patterns` matches canonical, versionless PURLs using `*` for zero or more characters and `?` for one character. Neither wildcard crosses `/` separators. Character classes (`[...]`) and backslash escapes are rejected at startup. For example, `"pkg:npm/@example/*"` matches packages under the `@example` npm scope. Patterns accept `@` as an alias for `%40`; other characters must use their canonical PURL form. Equivalent patterns with different durations are rejected at startup. Equal durations, such as `1d` and `24h`, are accepted.
Exact `packages` entries take precedence over patterns. When several patterns match, longer patterns win after excluding `*` and `?` from the length. Ties use lexical order of the normalized patterns.
Resolution order: exact package override, then package pattern, then ecosystem override, then global default. This lets you set a conservative default while exempting trusted package families.
Currently supported for npm, PyPI, pub.dev, Composer, Cargo, NuGet, Conda, RubyGems, and Hex. These ecosystems include publish timestamps in their metadata.
Note: Hex cooldown requires disabling registry signature verification since the proxy re-encodes the protobuf payload without the original signature. Set `HEX_NO_VERIFY_REPO_ORIGIN=1` or configure your repo with `no_verify: true`.
Cooldown only ever looks at a version's *publish timestamp* — it never inspects the actual bytes of an artifact. Artifact scanning runs after a fetched artifact is staged into storage but before it becomes visible from cache, so an external scanner (trivy, ClamAV, Wiz, or any custom service) can block a bad verdict from ever reaching a client.
```yaml
scanning:
enabled: true
fail_open: false
timeout: 30s
signing_key: ${PROXY_SCANNING_SIGNING_KEY}
fetch_base_url: http://proxy.internal:8080
scanners:
- name: clamav
url: http://clamav-adapter:8080/scan
mode: block
- name: trivy
url: http://trivy-adapter:8081/scan
mode: monitor
ecosystems: [npm, pypi]
```
| Config | Environment | Description |
|--------|-------------|-------------|
| `scanning.enabled` | `PROXY_SCANNING_ENABLED` | Turn on the scan gate. When false (default), artifacts are cached exactly as if scanning didn't exist |
| `scanning.fail_open` | `PROXY_SCANNING_FAIL_OPEN` | Treat scanner errors/timeouts as allow instead of block. Default is fail-closed |
| `scanning.signing_key` | `PROXY_SCANNING_SIGNING_KEY` | Signs pull requests to the internal scan-fetch route. Required whenever `enabled` is true |
| `scanning.fetch_base_url` | `PROXY_SCANNING_FETCH_BASE_URL` | Address scanners use to reach this proxy to pull staged artifacts. Defaults to `base_url` |
| `scanning.scanners` | - | List of external scanning services (YAML only) |
| `scanning.scanners[].name` | - | Identifies this scanner in logs and metrics |
| `scanning.scanners[].url` | - | Endpoint the proxy POSTs scan notifications to |
| `scanning.scanners[].mode` | - | `block` (default) or `monitor` |
| `scanning.scanners[].ecosystems` | - | Restricts this scanner to specific ecosystems (e.g. `npm`, `pypi`). Empty means all ecosystems |
| `scanning.scanners[].headers` | - | Extra HTTP headers sent with every scan request (e.g. for authenticating to the scanner service). Values support `${VAR_NAME}` expansion |
### How caching defers to a scan verdict
The proxy never uploads artifact bytes to a scanner. When an artifact is fetched from upstream, it's stored to the configured storage backend first, exactly as without scanning. If scanning is enabled for the artifact's ecosystem, the proxy then notifies each applicable scanner with package metadata and a short-lived, HMAC-signed URL pointing at the internal `/_internal/scan-fetch` route; each scanner GETs that URL itself to pull the exact bytes staged in storage and runs its own scan against them.
Scanners configured for the same ecosystem all run concurrently, never sequentially. The moment any `block`-mode scanner reports a not-allowed verdict (or errors, unless `fail_open` is set), the proxy cancels the in-flight calls to the other scanners and deletes the staged artifact — it's never committed to the cache database, so it was never visible to a client. If nothing blocks, the proxy waits for every `block`-mode scanner to finish before caching the artifact and serving it. A `monitor`-mode scanner's findings are logged and never gate the wait or the caching decision, even when it reports not-allowed.
A blocked download surfaces to the client as `403 Forbidden` with the scanner's reason, across every ecosystem handler.
### Scanner HTTP contract
Any external service that implements this contract can act as a scanner — a trivy wrapper, a clamav-rest bridge, a Wiz connector, or an in-house service. The proxy POSTs a notify request to `scanning.scanners[].url` and waits for a JSON verdict.
**Request**
| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `ecosystem` | string | e.g. `npm`, `pypi`, `cargo` |
| `name` | string | Package name |
| `version` | string | Package version |
| `filename` | string | Artifact filename |
| `purl` | string | Package URL (PURL) identifying this exact version |
| `content_type` | string | Artifact content type |
| `size` | integer | Artifact size in bytes |
| `fetch_url` | string | Short-lived signed URL; GET this to retrieve the exact staged bytes |
The scanner must respond within `scanning.timeout` (default `30s`); a timeout is treated the same as a `block` verdict unless `fail_open` is set.
### The `/_internal/scan-fetch` route
`fetch_url` points at an internal route, `/_internal/scan-fetch`, that streams a staged object straight from the proxy's storage backend via a short-lived HMAC-signed token (`path`, `exp`, `sig` query parameters). This works identically across every storage backend — local filesystem, S3, GCS, Azure — since it never depends on a backend-specific presigned URL, only on the one storage operation every backend already implements.
This route is not part of the public API. It's meant only for scanners to pull artifacts they've been notified about, and should be restricted to internal-network access at the ingress/network-policy layer — the HMAC scoping (one object, a short TTL) limits what a leaked token can do, but isn't a substitute for network restriction. Its query parameters are also documented in the generated [OpenAPI spec](../README.md#openapi-swagger).
The route only exists when scanning is actually configured: it's not mounted at all unless at least one scanner is enabled and `scanning.signing_key` is set, and it also refuses every request with `404` if either condition somehow isn't met at request time. There is no way to reach it, even with a forged token, when scanning is disabled.
By default the proxy fetches metadata fresh from upstream on every request. Enable `cache_metadata` to store metadata responses in the database and storage backend for offline fallback. When upstream is unreachable, the proxy serves the last cached copy. ETag-based revalidation avoids re-downloading unchanged metadata.
OCI manifests and tag lists are always cached because cached image blobs cannot be pulled without their manifests and offline clients may need tag resolution. Digest-addressed manifests are immutable and served directly from cache. Tag-addressed manifests and tag lists follow `metadata_ttl`, revalidate when stale, and fall back to the last cached response when the registry is unavailable.
When metadata caching is enabled, `metadata_ttl` controls how long a cached response is considered fresh before revalidating with upstream. During the TTL window, cached metadata is served directly without contacting upstream, reducing latency and upstream load.
```yaml
metadata_ttl: "5m" # default
```
Or via environment variable: `PROXY_METADATA_TTL=10m`.
Set to `"0"` to always revalidate with upstream (ETag-based conditional requests still avoid re-downloading unchanged content).
When upstream is unreachable and the cached entry is past its TTL, the proxy serves the stale cached copy with a `Warning: 110 - "Response is Stale"` header so clients can tell the data may be outdated.
Upstream metadata responses are buffered in memory before being rewritten and served. `metadata_max_size` caps that buffer to protect against OOM from a misbehaving upstream. Some npm packages with thousands of versions (for example `renovate`) exceed the 100 MB default, so raise this if you see `metadata response exceeds size limit` in the logs.
```yaml
metadata_max_size: "100MB" # default
```
Or via environment variable: `PROXY_METADATA_MAX_SIZE=250MB`.
The npm and Composer handlers rewrite every metadata document they serve, so that download URLs point at the proxy. That means decoding the whole document and encoding it again, and Composer's minified documents are also expanded, which together cost milliseconds per typical package and far more for very large ones. The proxy keeps rewritten documents in memory, so each distinct upstream document is rewritten once and requests arriving while it is being rewritten wait for that rewrite. New bytes from upstream are rewritten again. With version cooldown enabled the cache is bypassed, because cooldown filtering depends on the current time.
```yaml
metadata_rewrite_cache_size: "256MB" # default; "0" rewrites on every request
```
Or via environment variable: `PROXY_METADATA_REWRITE_CACHE_SIZE=1GB`.
Protocol handlers use a shared HTTP client for upstream requests such as metadata fetches and pass-through file downloads. `http_timeout` sets that client's per-request timeout. Raise it if slow upstreams or large metadata responses cause `context deadline exceeded` errors.
```yaml
http_timeout: "30s" # default
```
Or via environment variable: `PROXY_HTTP_TIMEOUT=2m`.
Set to `"0"` to disable the timeout entirely (requests then rely only on the server's write timeout). Independently of this setting, the shared transport gives up on an upstream that has not sent response headers within 60 seconds.
