Networking

Stackpanel manages the networking layer of your local development environment—port assignments, reverse proxying, DNS resolution, and TLS certificates. The goal is the same as the rest of Stackpanel: configure once, and every team member gets an identical setup without manual coordination.

What's Included

When you configure networking in Stackpanel, you get:

• Deterministic ports — Every service and app gets a stable port computed from your project name. No more port conflicts between projects, no more "works on my machine" debugging.
• Caddy reverse proxy — Access your local services through clean hostnames (myapp.local) instead of localhost:4237. Caddy handles routing, TLS termination, and automatic HTTPS.
• DNS resolution — Local DNS entries so that myapp.local, api.myapp.local, and similar hostnames resolve to your machine.
• TLS certificates — Internal certificates issued by Step CA, giving you real HTTPS in development. No browser warnings, no self-signed cert wrangling.

Quick Example

A typical networking setup might look like this:

stackpanel = {
  # Ports computed from project name — same on every machine
  ports.projectName = "myapp";

  # Apps get sequential ports from the computed base
  apps.web.port = 0;
  apps.api.port = 1;

  # Caddy reverse proxy for clean local URLs
  caddy = {
    enable = true;
    routes = {
      "myapp.local" = "http://localhost:${toString config.stackpanel.ports.computed.web}";
      "api.myapp.local" = "http://localhost:${toString config.stackpanel.ports.computed.api}";
    };
  };

  # Internal CA for HTTPS
  step-ca = {
    enable = true;
    ca-url = "https://ca.internal:443";
    ca-fingerprint = "abc123...";
  };
};

With this configuration, every developer on the team can access the web app at https://myapp.local and the API at https://api.myapp.local—with valid TLS certificates, stable ports, and zero manual setup.

Sections

How the Pieces Fit Together

The networking features build on each other:

Deterministic Ports
  → Each service gets a stable port (e.g., web=4200, api=4201, postgres=4237)

Caddy Reverse Proxy
  → Routes myapp.local → localhost:4200, api.myapp.local → localhost:4201

DNS Resolution
  → Makes myapp.local and api.myapp.local resolve to 127.0.0.1

Step CA (Certificates)
  → Issues TLS certs for myapp.local so HTTPS works without browser warnings

You can use any of these independently. Deterministic ports work without Caddy. Caddy works without Step CA (it'll use HTTP). But together they provide a development experience that closely mirrors production—real hostnames, real HTTPS, real routing.

Reference

• Options Reference → Ports for port configuration options
• Options Reference → Caddy for reverse proxy options
• Options Reference → DNS for DNS configuration
• Options Reference → Step CA for certificate authority options
• CLI → Caddy for Caddy management commands