From 34caf19e20d47df9bf1035960efe52e442cbc38e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Temirkanov Alikhan <kiraventom@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:29:24 +0300
Subject: [PATCH] Add a section on reverse-proxying via Nginx

---
 docs/setup_own_server.md | 100 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 100 insertions(+)

diff --git a/docs/setup_own_server.md b/docs/setup_own_server.md
index 40dd20d..6e3bcdc 100644
--- a/docs/setup_own_server.md
+++ b/docs/setup_own_server.md
@@ -291,3 +291,103 @@ entryPoints:
 
 ...
 ```
+
+### Nginx
+
+When configuring nginx as a reverse-proxy for CouchDB, note the common mistakes:
+
+1. If fast fetch progress stalls and seems to freeze indefinitely, make sure you disabled `proxy_buffering`:
+
+```nginx
+location / {
+    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5984;
+    proxy_buffering off;
+    ...
+}
+```
+
+2. If you get the "413 Entity too large" error, increase the `client_max_body_size`:
+
+```nginx
+location / {
+    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5984;
+    client_max_body_size 50M; # Tweak the value to your needs
+    ...
+}
+```
+
+
+3. If you get the "404 Database not found" error, make sure you placed CouchDB at the root location (recommended):
+
+```nginx
+server {
+    server_name couchdb.domain.com
+
+    location / {
+        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5984;
+        ...
+    }
+}
+```
+
+It is possible to place CouchDB into the subdirectory, however, the config should be modified respectively:
+
+```nginx
+
+server {
+    server_name domain.com
+
+    location /couchdb {
+        rewrite ^ $request_uri;
+        rewrite ^/couchdb/(.*) /$1 break;
+        
+        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5984$uri;
+        proxy_set_header Host $host;
+        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
+        ... 
+    }
+    location /_session {
+        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5984/_session;
+        proxy_set_header Host $host;
+        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
+        ...
+    }
+}
+```
+
+4. If you added custom HTTP headers in database connection advanced settings, make sure to update both nginx and CouchDB configurations:
+
+Nginx:
+```nginx
+location / {
+    set $pass 1; 
+    
+    # Example of handling custom HTTP header
+    if ($http_x_custom_header != 'foo'){ 
+        set $pass 0; 
+    } 
+
+    # Important: OPTIONS requests don't carry headers, so they should always be proxied to the CouchDB
+    if ($request_method = 'OPTIONS') { 
+        set $pass 1; 
+    } 
+
+    if ($pass = 0) { 
+        return 403; 
+    } 
+
+    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5984;
+    ...
+}
+```
+
+couchdb-etc/docker.ini:
+```ini
+...
+[cors]
+credentials = true
+origins = app://obsidian.md,capacitor://localhost,http://localhost
+
+;Make sure to add your custom header to the list so CORS won't break
+headers = accept, authorization, content-type, origin, referer, x-custom-header
+```