https://inclouds.space/localhost-domains

Charles Chamberlain

.localhost domains

2025-04-08

computers developer-tools

I've found a way to configure private, custom domains for web-apps I
have running on my computer. So instead of having to remember and
type "localhost:4333", I can simply navigate to "appname.localhost".
I love it!


Here's how the system works:

 1. Each app is set up as a launchd daemon listening on a unique
    port. Here's an example plist.

 2. I configure /etc/hosts to redirect traffic to these domains to
    127.0.0.1 instead.

 3. I then run and configure Caddy to redirect traffic from 127.0.0.1
    to the right port for the domain.

So, if I'm running an app on port 5050, I will have a corresponding
entry in /etc/host:


127.0.0.1 inclouds.localhost


and a section in my Caddyfile like this:


inclouds.localhost {

    reverse_proxy localhost:5050

    tls internal

    encode gzip zstd

}


This is working well but I'd really like to see this process
simplified. How cool would it be to install or uninstall apps to
.localhost domains with a single command, instead of manually editing
three files? But that's a project for another day.


Thanks for reading!


Update: cristobal came up with a command using dnsmasq that makes
this even better!

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