If you run a FiveM server and rely on the Nucleus reverse proxy for external HTTP access, there is an important deadline approaching. Cfx.re has announced that the *.users.cfx.re reverse proxy service will be fully deprecated on March 31, 2026. Server owners who depend on this feature for Discord bots, web dashboards, or API integrations need to prepare an alternative before that date.
What Is the Nucleus Reverse Proxy?
The Nucleus reverse proxy was a convenience feature provided by cfx.re that gave every FiveM server a publicly accessible HTTPS URL in the format <username>-<servercode>.users.cfx.re. This URL acted as a tunnel to your server's HTTP handler, allowing external services to reach endpoints exposed by your server without any additional infrastructure.
Through this proxy, server owners could expose a variety of HTTP endpoints including info.json, players.json, custom endpoints built with SetHttpHandler, and any other web-facing functionality. The key benefit was that it provided free, automatic HTTPS with zero configuration, making it trivially easy for even small community servers to integrate with external tools.
What's Changing?
After March 31, 2026, all *.users.cfx.re proxy URLs will stop working. Any service, script, or integration that calls these URLs will receive errors instead of the expected responses.
Join links are not affected. The familiar cfx.re/join/<servercode> links that players use to connect to your server will continue to work as normal. Only the <username>-<servercode>.users.cfx.re HTTP proxy URLs are being removed.
The deprecation applies specifically to the reverse proxy layer that forwarded HTTP requests to your server's internal endpoints. If you never used these URLs to expose data to external services, this change will not affect you.
Why This Matters
Many FiveM communities built workflows around the Nucleus proxy because it was the simplest way to get a working HTTPS endpoint. Here are the most common use cases that will break if no action is taken:
- Discord bots that poll
players.jsonorinfo.jsonto display live player counts, server status, or queue information in Discord channels. - Web dashboards and admin panels that pull real-time data from
SetHttpHandlerendpoints on the server. - API integrations with third-party services such as server list websites, analytics platforms, or donation systems that verify player data through HTTP callbacks.
- Custom REST APIs built with
SetHttpHandlerfor features like allowlist checks, ban lookups, or economy dashboards.
A significant concern raised by the community is that there is no built-in replacement for the HTTPS functionality the proxy provided. Smaller server owners who lack experience with web infrastructure may find it challenging to set up their own reverse proxy and SSL certificates.
What You Need to Do
To maintain external HTTP access to your FiveM server endpoints, you will need to set up your own reverse proxy. The general steps are:
- Get a domain name (or use a subdomain of one you already own) and point its DNS records to your server's public IP address.
- Install a reverse proxy such as Nginx or Caddy on your server or a separate VPS. Configure it to forward incoming requests to your FiveM server's HTTP port.
- Obtain an SSL certificate to enable HTTPS. Caddy handles this automatically; with Nginx you can use Let's Encrypt via Certbot.
- Update all external integrations — replace every
*.users.cfx.reURL in your Discord bots, dashboards, and third-party services with your new domain.
Do not wait until March 31 to begin migrating. Test your new setup in parallel while the Nucleus proxy is still active so you can verify everything works before the cutoff.
Alternative Approaches
Nginx Reverse Proxy
Nginx is the most widely used option. Install it on the same machine as your FiveM server (or on a dedicated VPS), create a server block that proxies traffic to localhost:<your_fivem_http_port>, and use Certbot to automatically provision and renew a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate. This approach gives you full control and works well on any Linux VPS with root access, including servers hosted at GoodLeaf.
Caddy
Caddy is an excellent choice for server owners who want the least amount of configuration. It automatically provisions HTTPS certificates out of the box. A minimal Caddyfile with just your domain and a reverse_proxy directive is all it takes to replicate what the Nucleus proxy used to provide.
Cloudflare Tunnel
If your server is behind a NAT or you do not want to expose its IP address directly, a Cloudflare Tunnel is a strong alternative. It creates an outbound connection from your server to Cloudflare's network, letting you serve your endpoints through a custom domain with HTTPS and DDoS protection, all without opening inbound ports.
Whichever method you choose, make sure your FiveM server's HTTP port is not exposed directly to the public internet. Let the reverse proxy handle all external traffic and keep the HTTP listener bound to localhost.
Will cfx.re/join links stop working?+
No. Only the *.users.cfx.re reverse proxy URLs are being deprecated. The cfx.re/join/<servercode> links that players use to connect to your server will continue to function normally.
Do I need a separate VPS just for the reverse proxy?+
Not necessarily. You can run Nginx or Caddy on the same machine as your FiveM server. However, if your game server is on a Windows machine or a managed hosting plan without root access, a small separate Linux VPS dedicated to the reverse proxy is a practical and affordable solution.
What happens if I do nothing before March 31?+
Any integration that relies on *.users.cfx.re URLs will stop working. Discord bots will fail to fetch server data, web dashboards will lose connectivity, and any external API calls to those endpoints will return errors. Your FiveM server itself will continue to run and accept players normally.
