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Answers to common server and Nginx questions when hosting Swiftchats. Expand a question to see the steps or explanation.

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How to install in Nginx

Use Nginx as a reverse proxy to your Swiftchats (Laravel) app and to Evolution API (bound to 127.0.0.1:8080 in Docker). Replace example domains and paths with your own. 
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y nginx
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx
Point the document root at Laravel’s public directory and pass PHP to PHP-FPM.Create a server block (example: /etc/nginx/sites-available/swiftchats):
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/swiftchats/public;

    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";

    index index.php;
    charset utf-8;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

    error_page 404 /index.php;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_hide_header X-Powered-By;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}
Enable the site, validate the configuration, and reload Nginx:
sudo ln -sf /etc/nginx/sites-available/swiftchats /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx
Replace yourdomain.com, /var/www/swiftchats/public, and the php8.2-fpm socket path with your actual values (your PHP version may differ).
Expose Evolution API on its own hostname (or subdomain). The URL must match SERVER_URL in Evolution’s .env (for example https://evolution.yourdomain.com after TLS).Create a server block (example: /etc/nginx/sites-available/evolution-api):
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name evolution.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_read_timeout 3600s;
        proxy_send_timeout 3600s;
    }
}
Enable, test, and reload:
sudo ln -sf /etc/nginx/sites-available/evolution-api /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx
In Swiftchats, set EVOLUTION_BASE_URL to the same public base URL you use for Evolution.
sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com
sudo certbot --nginx -d evolution.yourdomain.com
Certbot installs certificates and updates your Nginx server blocks. Ensure SERVER_URL and EVOLUTION_BASE_URL use https:// after certificates are in place.

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Media, chats, and API issues

A common issue with Nginx is media files not being sent in chats or campaigns. To resolve this, remove the following block from your site .conf file:
location ~ .*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|swf)$
{
    expires      30d;
    error_log /dev/null;
    access_log /dev/null;
}
Then run sudo nginx -t and sudo systemctl reload nginx.
If browser or app requests that use PUT, DELETE, PATCH, or other REST-style methods return 403 Forbidden (often on JSON or /api/... routes), the request may be blocked before it reaches the Swiftchats (Laravel) application.Common causes on shared hosting and control panels (for example cPanel, CWP (CentOS Web Panel), Plesk, and similar) include:
  • ModSecurity (ModSec) and other WAF rules that treat non-GET/POST traffic, large JSON bodies, or certain URL patterns as suspicious and respond with 403.
  • Host-level security (e.g. Imunify360, custom firewall rules) that applies the same kind of filtering at the edge.
  • Stricter than necessary Limit / LimitExcept (Apache) or equivalent method allowlists, though this is less common on typical Laravel deployments than ModSec/WAF defaults.
What to do: Open a ticket with your host and ask them to allow the HTTP methods your app needs for your domain (or to disable or tune ModSecurity for your app’s paths). If they cannot relax those rules, deploy on a VPS or dedicated server where you run Nginx (or Apache) and PHP yourself, as in the How to install in Nginx section above, so API traffic is not subject to default shared-hosting WAF rules.
403s on PUT/DELETE are usually infrastructure or panel security, not a bug in Swiftchats. Check server or ModSecurity error logs (often error_log or ModSec audit logs) to confirm the block happens at the web server or WAF layer.