Traefik

Self-hosted reverse proxy replacing Nginx Proxy Manager — gives every service a friendly <service>.home.server hostname with locally-trusted HTTPS, configured entirely as code.

Why the migration from Nginx Proxy Manager

NPM works fine, but the switching cost grew as the homelab did. Two things pushed the move:

1. Infrastructure as code

NPM's entire configuration lives behind a web UI — proxy hosts, SSL certificates, custom locations, access rules. None of it is version-controlled, exportable, or reproducible. If the container dies and comes back without its data volume, you're rebuilding every proxy host by hand.

Traefik is the opposite: every route, middleware, TLS cert, and entrypoint is defined in YAML files that live in this repo. The compose file, the dynamic/ configs, the cert files — all version-controlled, all diffable, all reproducible with docker compose up -d. This is the same pattern the rest of the homelab already follows (each service is a Compose file in a folder), and Traefik fits that model naturally where NPM didn't.

2. Docker daemon auto-discovery

NPM requires you to manually add each proxy host through its web UI — type the domain, point it at the container's IP and port, attach an SSL cert, save. Every new service means another round-trip through the UI.

Traefik talks directly to the Docker daemon and watches for containers with traefik.enable=true. Add a few labels to any compose file and Traefik picks up the new route automatically — no UI interaction, no restart, no manual configuration. This means adding a new service to the reverse proxy is a two-line addition to that service's compose file, not a separate step in a different tool.

How it works

traefik/
├── compose.yaml          # Traefik container + static config
├── certs/                # Local TLS certificates (mkcert)
│   ├── home.server.crt
│   └── home.server.key
└── dynamic/              # File-based provider — routes, middlewares, TLS
    ├── tls.yaml          # Default TLS cert store
    ├── middlewares.yaml  # HTTPS redirect + security headers
    ├── pihole.yaml       # Pi-hole route
    ├── plex.yml          # Plex route (external host)
    ├── sentinel.yml      # Sentinel route (external host)
    └── dockscope-auth.yml # Basic auth middleware for DockScope

Static config (`compose.yaml`)

Traefik's static configuration is passed as command-line flags:

Docker provider — watches the Docker daemon for labeled containers on the web_net network
File provider — watches /dynamic/ for YAML config changes (hot-reloaded, no restart needed)
Entrypoints — :80 (HTTP) and :443 (HTTPS)
API dashboard — enabled but not insecure (accessed via its own HTTPS route)

Dynamic config (`dynamic/`)

Routes and middlewares are defined as YAML files, not labels. This keeps the compose files clean and makes it easy to see all routing rules in one place:

middlewares.yaml — shared redirect-to-https and security-headers middlewares (HSTS, XSS filter, content-type nosniff, SAMEORIGIN framing)
tls.yaml — default TLS cert store pointing at the mkcert-generated certificate
pihole.yaml, plex.yml, sentinel.yml — per-service route definitions for services that can't use Docker labels (host-network or external hosts)

Services using Docker labels

Most services define their Traefik routes directly in their compose files via labels:

labels:
  - "traefik.enable=true"
  - "traefik.docker.network=web_net"
  - "traefik.http.routers.<service>.rule=Host(`<service>.home.server`)"
  - "traefik.http.routers.<service>.entrypoints=websecure"
  - "traefik.http.routers.<service>.tls=true"
  - "traefik.http.routers.<service>.middlewares=security-headers@file"
  - "traefik.http.routers.<service>-http.rule=Host(`<service>.home.server`)"
  - "traefik.http.routers.<service>-http.entrypoints=web"
  - "traefik.http.routers.<service>-http.middlewares=redirect-to-https@file"
  - "traefik.http.services.<service>.loadbalancer.server.port=<internal-port>"

Services currently fronted by Traefik:

Service	Hostname	Internal Port
Prometheus	`prometheus.home.server`	9090
Grafana	`grafana.home.server`	3000
cAdvisor	`cadvisor.home.server`	8080
Loki	`loki.home.server`	3100
Alloy	`alloy.home.server`	12345
Pi-hole	`pihole.home.server`	8082 (host)
Portainer	`portainer.home.server`	9000
n8n	`n8n.home.server`	5678
Filebrowser	`filebrowser.home.server`	80
DockScope	`dockscope.home.server`	4681
Semaphore	`semaphore.home.server`	3000
MinIO	`minio.home.server`	9001
Plex	`plex.home.server`	32400 (external)
Sentinel	`sentinel.home.server`	8088 (external)
Vaultwarden	`vaultwarden.home.server`	80
Traefik Dashboard	`traefik.home.server`	API@internal

TLS certificates

Same approach as before — mkcert generates a local CA and signs certificates for *.home.server. The cert and key live in certs/ and are mounted read-only into the Traefik container.

Traefik loads the default cert via dynamic/tls.yaml:

tls:
  stores:
    default:
      defaultCertificate:
        certFile: /certs/home.server.crt
        keyFile: /certs/home.server.key

Adding a new service with a .home.server hostname automatically gets the right cert — no per-host certificate assignment needed.

Adding a new service

If the service is a Docker container on web_net — add Traefik labels to its compose file (copy the pattern from any existing service above)
If the service is host-network or external — create a new YAML file in dynamic/ with the router and service definition
Add the hostname to Pi-hole — so DNS resolves <service>.home.server to the server's LAN IP

No restart required — Traefik watches both the Docker daemon and the dynamic/ directory and picks up changes automatically.

Network

All Traefik-fronted services join the web_net external Docker network. This network must be created before starting Traefik:

docker network create web_net

Security notes

The Traefik dashboard is behind its own HTTPS route with security headers — not exposed on the public internet, LAN-only via Pi-hole DNS
DockScope additionally uses a basicAuth middleware (dynamic/dockscope-auth.yml) since it mounts the Docker socket
All HTTP requests are redirected to HTTPS permanently (301)
Security headers include HSTS (1 year, includeSubdomains, preload), XSS filter, content-type nosniff, and SAMEORIGIN framing

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