Stop Writing Nginx Configs from Scratch: The Ultimate Generator for React & Node

By Sam

Let’s be honest: nobody actually memorizes Nginx syntax.

You might know the basics of a server block, but do you remember the exact regex for a safe cache policy? Do you remember the specific try_files directive that prevents your React app from throwing a 404 error when a user refreshes the page?

I’ve spent countless hours debugging production outages caused by a missing semicolon or a misconfigured proxy_pass. That is why I built this Nginx Config Generator. It’s not just a syntax highlighter; it’s a production-ready config builder that follows industry best practices.

How to Use This Nginx Config Generator

Configuring Nginx manually is prone to syntax errors that can crash your server. This tool generates a production-ready server block tailored to your specific application architecture.

Step 1: Configure Server Details

• Domain Name: Enter your live domain (e.g., app.yoursite.com). If you are testing locally, you can use localhost.
• Document Root: This is the folder on your server where your files live.
  • For React/Vue builds, it is usually /var/www/html/build.
  • For standard static sites, it is /var/www/html.

Step 2: Choose Your Application Type (Critical)

The “Application Type” dropdown changes how Nginx handles routing:

• Static HTML: Standard setup. Nginx looks for a file; if it’s missing, it returns a 404.
• Single Page App (SPA): Select this for React, Vue, or Angular. It adds the try_files $uri /index.html directive. This ensures that when a user refreshes a page like /dashboard, Nginx serves your app instead of an error.
• Reverse Proxy: Select this for Node.js, Go, Python, or Java backends. It enables the proxy_pass directive to forward traffic to your internal port (e.g., 3000).

Step 3: Security & Optimization

• Force HTTPS: Creates a separate server block that auto-redirects all insecure HTTP traffic to HTTPS.
• Enable Gzip: Compresses your HTML, CSS, and JS files before sending them to the browser. This can reduce page load times by 70%.
• Security Headers: Adds headers like X-Frame-Options to prevent Clickjacking attacks.

Step 4: Deployment Instructions

1. Copy the generated code.
2. On your server, create a file: sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/mydomain.com
3. Paste the code and save (Ctrl+O, Enter).
4. Enable the site: sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mydomain.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
5. Important: Test for errors: sudo nginx -t
6. Restart Nginx: sudo systemctl restart nginx

The “White Screen of Death” (SPA Routing)

The #1 reason developers search for Nginx configs is because their React app broke. You deploy the build, the homepage loads fine, but the moment you click “About” and hit refresh, you get a 404 Not Found.

Why this happens: React Router handles navigation client-side. When you refresh /about, the browser asks the Nginx server for a folder named about. It doesn’t exist.

How this tool fixes it: When you select “Single Page App” in the generator, we automatically inject this directive:

try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;

This tells Nginx: “If you can’t find the file or folder requested, just serve index.html and let React figure it out.” It’s a one-line fix that saves hours of frustration.

Security Headers You Probably Forgot

A raw Nginx install is insecure by default. It exposes your server version and allows your site to be embedded in iframes (Clickjacking).

This generator automatically appends security headers that will get you an A+ rating on security audits:

• X-Frame-Options “SAMEORIGIN”: Stops other sites from embedding yours in an iframe.
• X-Content-Type-Options “nosniff”: Prevents MIME-type sniffing attacks.
• HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security): Forces browsers to only talk to your server over HTTPS.

The SSL/Certbot Workflow

You’ll notice the SSL certificate lines in the generated code are commented out (#). This is intentional.

If you try to restart Nginx with paths to SSL certificates that don’t exist yet, Nginx will crash. The correct workflow—which this tool supports—is:

1. Generate the config with Port 80 (HTTP) enabled.
2. Start Nginx.
3. Run sudo certbot --nginx.
4. Let Certbot modify the file to point to the real certificates.

Stop fighting with syntax errors. Use the tool, grab the config, and get back to coding your actual application.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Nginx config file located?

On most Linux systems (Ubuntu/Debian), the main configuration file is at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf. However, for individual sites, you should create a file in /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com and symlink it to the sites-enabled directory.

Why does my React/Vue app give a 404 error on refresh?

This happens because Nginx tries to look for a directory matching the URL (e.g., /about) on the server, but the routing is handled client-side. To fix this, you must add the try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html; directive, which our generator adds automatically when you select “Single Page App”.

How do I test my Nginx config without crashing the server?

Always run the command sudo nginx -t before restarting. This checks for syntax errors. If the test passes, reload the configuration with zero downtime using sudo systemctl reload nginx.

How do I add free SSL (HTTPS) to this config?

First, apply the HTTP-only configuration generated by this tool. Then, install Certbot and run sudo certbot --nginx. Certbot will automatically detect your server block and modify it to include the SSL certificate paths and auto-renewal settings.

What is the difference between ‘root’ and ‘proxy_pass’?

Use root when serving static files (HTML, images, JS) from a folder on your server. Use proxy_pass when you want Nginx to forward the request to a backend application running on a specific port (like Node.js on port 3000).