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                        <h1 id="delegation-of-incoming-federation-traffic"><a class="header" href="#delegation-of-incoming-federation-traffic">Delegation of incoming federation traffic</a></h1>
<p>In the following documentation, we use the term <code>server_name</code> to refer to that setting
in your homeserver configuration file. It appears at the ends of user ids, and tells
other homeservers where they can find your server.</p>
<p>By default, other homeservers will expect to be able to reach yours via
your <code>server_name</code>, on port 8448. For example, if you set your <code>server_name</code>
to <code>example.com</code> (so that your user names look like <code>@user:example.com</code>),
other servers will try to connect to yours at <code>https://example.com:8448/</code>.</p>
<p>Delegation is a Matrix feature allowing a homeserver admin to retain a
<code>server_name</code> of <code>example.com</code> so that user IDs, room aliases, etc continue
to look like <code>*:example.com</code>, whilst having federation traffic routed
to a different server and/or port (e.g. <code>synapse.example.com:443</code>).</p>
<h2 id="well-known-delegation"><a class="header" href="#well-known-delegation">.well-known delegation</a></h2>
<p>To use this method, you need to be able to configure the server at
<code>https://&lt;server_name&gt;</code> to serve a file at
<code>https://&lt;server_name&gt;/.well-known/matrix/server</code>.  There are two ways to do this, shown below.</p>
<p>Note that the <code>.well-known</code> file is hosted on the default port for <code>https</code> (port 443).</p>
<h3 id="external-server"><a class="header" href="#external-server">External server</a></h3>
<p>For maximum flexibility, you need to configure an external server such as nginx, Apache
or HAProxy to serve the <code>https://&lt;server_name&gt;/.well-known/matrix/server</code> file. Setting
up such a server is out of the scope of this documentation, but note that it is often
possible to configure your <a href="reverse_proxy.html">reverse proxy</a> for this.</p>
<p>The URL <code>https://&lt;server_name&gt;/.well-known/matrix/server</code> should be configured
return a JSON structure containing the key <code>m.server</code> like this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
    &quot;m.server&quot;: &quot;&lt;synapse.server.name&gt;[:&lt;yourport&gt;]&quot;
}
</code></pre>
<p>In our example (where we want federation traffic to be routed to
<code>https://synapse.example.com</code>, on port 443), this would mean that
<code>https://example.com/.well-known/matrix/server</code> should return:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
    &quot;m.server&quot;: &quot;synapse.example.com:443&quot;
}
</code></pre>
<p>Note, specifying a port is optional. If no port is specified, then it defaults
to 8448.</p>
<h3 id="serving-a-well-knownmatrixserver-file-with-synapse"><a class="header" href="#serving-a-well-knownmatrixserver-file-with-synapse">Serving a <code>.well-known/matrix/server</code> file with Synapse</a></h3>
<p>If you are able to set up your domain so that <code>https://&lt;server_name&gt;</code> is routed to
Synapse (i.e., the only change needed is to direct federation traffic to port 443
instead of port 8448), then it is possible to configure Synapse to serve a suitable
<code>.well-known/matrix/server</code> file. To do so, add the following to your <code>homeserver.yaml</code>
file:</p>
<pre><code class="language-yaml">serve_server_wellknown: true
</code></pre>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: this <em>only</em> works if <code>https://&lt;server_name&gt;</code> is routed to Synapse, so is
generally not suitable if Synapse is hosted at a subdomain such as
<code>https://synapse.example.com</code>.</p>
<h2 id="srv-dns-record-delegation"><a class="header" href="#srv-dns-record-delegation">SRV DNS record delegation</a></h2>
<p>It is also possible to do delegation using a SRV DNS record. However, that is generally
not recommended, as it can be difficult to configure the TLS certificates correctly in
this case, and it offers little advantage over <code>.well-known</code> delegation.</p>
<p>However, if you really need it, you can find some documentation on what such a
record should look like and how Synapse will use it in <a href="https://matrix.org/docs/spec/server_server/latest#resolving-server-names">the Matrix
specification</a>.</p>
<h2 id="delegation-faq"><a class="header" href="#delegation-faq">Delegation FAQ</a></h2>
<h3 id="when-do-i-need-delegation"><a class="header" href="#when-do-i-need-delegation">When do I need delegation?</a></h3>
<p>If your homeserver's APIs are accessible on the default federation port (8448)
and the domain your <code>server_name</code> points to, you do not need any delegation.</p>
<p>For instance, if you registered <code>example.com</code> and pointed its DNS A record at a
fresh server, you could install Synapse on that host, giving it a <code>server_name</code>
of <code>example.com</code>, and once a reverse proxy has been set up to proxy all requests
sent to the port <code>8448</code> and serve TLS certificates for <code>example.com</code>, you
wouldn't need any delegation set up.</p>
<p><strong>However</strong>, if your homeserver's APIs aren't accessible on port 8448 and on the
domain <code>server_name</code> points to, you will need to let other servers know how to
find it using delegation.</p>
<h3 id="should-i-use-a-reverse-proxy-for-federation-traffic"><a class="header" href="#should-i-use-a-reverse-proxy-for-federation-traffic">Should I use a reverse proxy for federation traffic?</a></h3>
<p>Generally, using a reverse proxy for both the federation and client traffic is a good
idea, since it saves handling TLS traffic in Synapse. See
<a href="reverse_proxy.html">the reverse proxy documentation</a> for information on setting up a
reverse proxy.</p>

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