OpenResty

What is OpenResty?

OpenResty is Nginx bundled with LuaJIT and a set of Lua modules, letting you script request handling (auth, routing, rate limiting, API gateways) directly inside the web server instead of only through Nginx's native directives. Everything about its config format is Nginx-compatible: site files are plain Nginx server blocks, with Lua available where you need it.

Start OpenResty

docker compose up -d openresty

OpenResty's compose.yml declares depends_on: php-fpm, so Compose starts it automatically. Add whatever else your app needs, for example:

docker compose up -d openresty mysql workspace

Stop OpenResty

docker compose stop openresty

Configuration

All settings live in openresty/defaults.env and can be overridden by adding the same line to your own .env:

Variable	Default	What it does
OPENRESTY_HOST_HTTP_PORT	80	Host-side port mapped to container port 80.
OPENRESTY_HOST_HTTPS_PORT	443	Host-side port mapped to container port 443.
OPENRESTY_HOST_LOG_PATH	./logs/openresty/	Host folder mounted to /var/log/nginx.
OPENRESTY_SITES_PATH	./openresty/sites/	Host folder mounted to /etc/nginx/sites-available, one file per site.
OPENRESTY_PHP_UPSTREAM_CONTAINER	php-fpm	Container name OpenResty proxies PHP requests to (build arg).
OPENRESTY_PHP_UPSTREAM_PORT	9000	Port on the upstream PHP container (build arg).
OPENRESTY_SSL_PATH	./openresty/ssl/	Host folder mounted to /etc/nginx/ssl, for your certificates.

The container also publishes ${VARNISH_BACKEND_PORT}:81, the port Varnish uses to talk back when you run OpenResty behind Varnish as a cache, same as the Nginx service.

Add a site config

Every file in openresty/sites/ is loaded automatically, using the same server-block syntax as plain Nginx. There's a default.conf plus framework templates (laravel.conf.example, symfony.conf.example, node.conf.example, confluence.conf.example, laravel_varnish.conf.example):

cp openresty/sites/laravel.conf.example openresty/sites/laravel.conf

Edit server_name and root to match your app, then restart:

docker compose restart openresty

fastcgi_pass php-upstream; in these templates resolves to OPENRESTY_PHP_UPSTREAM_CONTAINER:OPENRESTY_PHP_UPSTREAM_PORT.

Enable SSL

Uncomment the SSL lines in your site config (listen 443 ssl;, ssl_certificate, ssl_certificate_key), and place your certificate and key in the folder pointed to by OPENRESTY_SSL_PATH (./openresty/ssl/ by default), then restart the container.

Change the exposed port

OPENRESTY_HOST_HTTP_PORT=8080
OPENRESTY_HOST_HTTPS_PORT=8443

docker compose up -d openresty

Common issues

• 502 Bad Gateway. OpenResty can't reach PHP-FPM. Confirm php-fpm is running and that OPENRESTY_PHP_UPSTREAM_CONTAINER/OPENRESTY_PHP_UPSTREAM_PORT match its real name and port.
• New site file has no effect. Config in openresty/sites/ is read on container start, run docker compose restart openresty after adding or editing a file.
• Not sure whether to reach for Lua or plain server-block config. If you don't need scripted request handling, the vanilla Nginx service uses the same site config format and is a lighter-weight choice.
• Port already in use on your host. Another web server (or another Laradock project) is already bound to 80/443. Change OPENRESTY_HOST_HTTP_PORT/OPENRESTY_HOST_HTTPS_PORT and restart.

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Need a different web server? See Nginx, Apache, or Caddy. New to Laradock? Start with Getting Started.