rocky

Programmatic HTTP and WebSocket reverse proxy CLI

TLDR

Forward all traffic from a local port to an upstream server

$ rocky --port [8080] --forward [http://server:9000]

Forward selected routes while ignoring everything else

$ rocky --port [8080] --forward [http://server] --route "[/api/*, /images/*]"

Replay traffic to a second backend (shadow / mirror requests)

$ rocky --port [8080] --forward [http://primary] --replay [http://shadow]

Load balance between multiple upstream servers

$ rocky --port [8080] --balance "[http://a:9000, http://b:9000]"

Run from a TOML config file

$ rocky --config [path/to/rocky.toml]

Serve over HTTPS with a key and certificate

$ rocky --port [8443] --key [server.key] --cert [server.crt] --forward [http://backend]

rocky is a middleware-oriented HTTP and WebSocket reverse proxy built on Node.js. The rocky-cli front-end exposes its core features through a single command so a proxy can be started without writing JavaScript. It can forward requests to one or more backends, replay traffic to shadow services, balance load across upstreams, and intercept or transform requests and responses on the fly.Routes are expressed as glob patterns and matched against the request path, letting you proxy only specific endpoints while ignoring others. Replay targets receive a copy of each forwarded request, which is useful for blue/green deployments, regression testing against a new backend, or recording traffic for later analysis.Configuration can be passed entirely on the command line or loaded from a TOML file via --config, making it easy to commit reproducible proxy setups alongside the rest of a project.

PARAMETERS

-c file, --config file

Load configuration from a TOML file.

-p port, --port port

TCP port for the local HTTP server.

-f url, --forward url

Default upstream URL to forward traffic to.

-r url, --replay url

Additional upstream that receives a copy of every request (replay/shadow target). Repeatable.

-t routes, --route routes

Comma-separated list of route patterns to handle. Glob-style wildcards are supported.

-b urls, --balance urls

Comma-separated list of upstream URLs to balance traffic between.

-k file, --key file

Path to the SSL/TLS private key.

-e file, --cert file

Path to the SSL/TLS certificate.

-s, --secure

Enable strict SSL certificate validation when proxying to HTTPS upstreams.

-m, --mute

Disable HTTP traffic logging.

-d, --debug

Enable verbose debug output.

-v, --version

Print the version and exit.

-h, --help

Show usage help.

CONFIGURATION

A typical rocky.toml file looks like this:

$ port = 8080
forward = "http://127.0.0.1:9000"
replay = ["http://127.0.0.1:9001"]

[[routes]]
path = "/api/*"
forward = "http://api.internal:8080"

[[routes]]
path = "/static/*"
forward = "http://cdn.internal"

Command-line flags override values from the configuration file when both are supplied.

CAVEATS

The upstream rocky project is deprecated and no longer actively maintained, so it should not be relied on for new production deployments. Because it runs on Node.js, performance under heavy load is lower than that of native proxies such as nginx or HAProxy. Glob route matching is greedy; order patterns from most specific to most general to avoid unexpected forwarding decisions.

HISTORY

rocky was created by Tomás Aparicio (h2non) and released as an open-source Node.js HTTP proxy framework. The companion rocky-cli package shipped shortly afterwards to expose the same functionality without writing code. Both projects have been archived as deprecated, with users typically migrating to dedicated proxies such as nginx, HAProxy, or Envoy.