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Proxying Plausible through Deno Deploy

Step 1: Deploy proxy code​

Start by getting a Deno Deploy account if you don't have one already.

There's a few ways to get code deployed on Deno Deploy. We'll cover two in this section:

  • Using Deno Deploy's web interface.
  • Using Deno's runtime CLI.

In both cases, the script that you'll need to deploy will look something like this:

const SCRIPT_PATH = "/pap/script.js"
const EVENT_PATH = "/pap/event"

Deno.serve((request, info) => {
  if (request.url.endsWith(SCRIPT_PATH)) {
    return fetch("https://plausible.io/js/plausible.js")
  } else if (request.url.endsWith(EVENT_PATH)) {
    const requestClone = new Request(request)
    requestClone.headers.delete("Cookie")
    requestClone.headers.set("X-Forwarded-For", info.remoteAddr.hostname)
    return fetch("https://plausible.io/api/event", requestClone)
  }
  return new Response(null, { status: 404 })
})

Notice that we remove the Cookie header as that could contain sensitive information that's best not shared. We also set the value of X-Forwarded-For with the user's IP. See the events API page for more information on header requirements.

Both SCRIPT_PATH and EVENT_PATH can and should be customised. They should match the paths you'll end up using in the script tag you'll add to the site you want analytics on.

Using Deno Deploy's web interface​

Log into Deno Deploy, navigate to the Projects Overview page and click on the "New Playground" button:

Screenshot of Deno Deploy Projects Overview page

This will deploy a new project and present an online text editor with the contents of your project's main.ts file. Paste the contents of the proxy script provided above and click on "Save & Deploy":

Screenshot of Deno Deploy's playground page

Using Deno's runtime CLI​

Assumming you have a local installation of the Deno runtime, initialize a new project with the init command:

deno init proxy-project-folder

Inside that folder, create a file named main.ts with the contents of the proxy script provided above.

To deploy your proxy script, run the following from the project folder:

deno deploy

Step 2: Add script tag to site​

After successful deployment, your proxy script will be served from a custom deno.dev subdomain. You can confirm that it's working by visiting the URL for the Plausible client-side script:

https://your-deno-subdomain.deno.dev/pap/script.js

If that works, you can go ahead and add the following script tag to the site you want analytics on:

<script
  defer
  src="https://your-deno-subdomain.deno.dev/pap/script.js"
  data-api="https://your-deno-subdomain.deno.dev/pap/event"
  data-domain="your-domain.com"
></script>

Your single proxy will work with multiple sites; you'll just need to update the data-domain attribute for each new site.