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Deploy Custom Error Pages

When your upstream nodes or services go offline, you don't want your users to see a blank page, a standalone HTTP error code, or an ngrok-branded error page. A custom error page gives you the chance to communicate clearly and reinforce your brand even during downtime.

With ngrok’s Traffic Policy engine, you can define exactly what your users see when your upstream service fails. This example walks you through how to route requests to your internal service, and then fall back to a branded error page if that service is unavailable.

1. Create an endpoint for your service​

Start an internal Agent Endpoint, replacing $PORT based on where your service listens. You can also use one of our SDKs or the Kubernetes Operator.

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2. Reserve a domain​

Navigate to the Domains section of the ngrok dashboard and click New + to reserve a free static domain like https://your-service.ngrok.app or a custom domain you already own.

We'll refer to this domain as $NGROK_DOMAIN from here on out.

3. Create a Cloud Endpoint​

Navigate to the Endpoints section of the ngrok dashboard, then click New + and Cloud Endpoint.

In the URL field, enter the domain you just reserved to finish creating your Cloud Endpoint.

4. Add routing to your service and error handling with Traffic Policy​

While still viewing your new Cloud Endpoint in the dashboard, copy and paste the policy below into the Traffic Policy editor.

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What's happening here? This policy forwards all HTTP requests to the internal agent endpoint you created at https://service.internal.

If forwarding to https://service.internal fails, the on_error: continue configuration on your forward-internal action means that the policy continues to the next rule, which sends a custom 503 error response with the HTML specified in the body.

5. Try out your endpoint​

Visit the domain you reserved either in the browser or in the terminal using a tool like curl. You should see the app or service at the port connected to your internal Agent Endpoint.

If you take down either your upstream service or the internal Agent Endpoint, you'll see your custom error message.

What's next?​

  • See other examples of using the custom-response to create error pages or messages, such as a JSON-based response for an API service.
  • View your traffic in Traffic Inspector to see who and when users hit your custom error page.
  • Add the log action before the custom-response to send error events over to your observability platform for enriched debugging.

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