bnema.dev

External Routes Configuration

External routes allow proxying to non-containerized services running on the host or network.

Configuration

[external_routes]
"service.mydomain.com" = "localhost:3000"
"cache.mydomain.com" = "192.168.1.100:6379"

Syntax

[external_routes]
"<domain>" = "<host>:<port>"
Component Description
domain Fully qualified domain name
host Target hostname or IP address
port Target port number

Use Cases

Database Admin Tools

Proxy to database admin interfaces:

[external_routes]
"pgadmin.mydomain.com" = "localhost:5050"
"redis-commander.mydomain.com" = "localhost:8081"

Legacy Services

Proxy to services that can't be containerized:

[external_routes]
"legacy-api.mydomain.com" = "192.168.1.50:8080"

How It Works

  1. Request arrives for service.mydomain.com
  2. Gordon checks if domain matches an external route
  3. If matched, proxies directly to the configured host:port
  4. No container lookup is performed
Client ─> Gordon Proxy ─> External Service
          (port 80)       (configured host:port)

Limitations

  • HTTP only (no HTTPS upstream)
  • No health checks
  • No load balancing

Hot Reload

External routes reload automatically when the config file changes:

# Edit config
vim ~/.config/gordon/gordon.toml

# Add external route
[external_routes]
"newservice.mydomain.com" = "localhost:9000"

# Save - Gordon reloads automatically