// the find
jvns/nginx-playground
An interactive playground for testing nginx configs in the browser — you write a config, send a fake HTTP request against it, and see how nginx actually responds. Built by jvns (Julia Evans) as a teaching tool to accompany her nginx writing; useful for anyone who wants to understand nginx directive behavior without spinning up a local server.
It runs requests against a real nginx binary rather than simulating behavior, so what you see is what you'd get in production. The security architecture is sensible: frontend and backend run on separate servers, so a compromised backend (which executes arbitrary nginx configs) can't touch the frontend. Each run is sandboxed with bubblewrap rather than just trusting the config. The stack itself is small and legible — Go backend, vanilla JS frontend, no framework sprawl.
The author flags it as mostly unmaintained — bug fixes only, no new features, and no guarantee of response. Local dev setup is genuinely rough: Linux-only because of the bubblewrap dependency, requires nginx installed in specific filesystem paths, and the backend has to run as root, which the README itself calls 'a mess.' The author is upfront that it may have security holes and gives users a lot of execution access, so self-hosting it anywhere sensitive is a real risk, not a hypothetical one. It also vendors CodeMirror 5.63.0 directly into the repo instead of pulling it as a dependency, which is a few major versions behind current CodeMirror.