.localhost Domains

Summary

I’ve found a way to configure private, custom domains for web-apps I have running on my computer. So instead of having to remember and type “localhost:4333”, I can simply navigate to “appname.localhost”. I love it! Here’s how the system works:Each app is set up as a launchd daemon listening on a unique port. Here’s an example plist.I configure /etc/hosts to redirect traffic to these domains to 127.0.0.1 instead.I then run and configure Caddy to redirect traffic from 127.0.0.1 to the right port for the domain.So, if I’m running an app on port 5050, I will have a corresponding entry in /etc/host:127.0.0.1 inclouds.localhostand a section in my Caddyfile like this:inclouds.localhost { reverse_proxy localhost:5050 tls internal encode gzip zstd}This is working well but I’d really like to see this process simplified. How cool would it be to install or uninstall apps to .localhost domains with a single command, instead of manually editing three files? But that’s a project for another day. Thanks for reading!Update: cristóbal came up with a command using dnsmasq that makes this even better!