NGINX Directive Execution Order: The 11 Request Phases

NGINX Directive Execution Order: The 11 Request Phases Problem Statement NGINX processes every request through a fixed pipeline of eleven phases. A directive does not run where it is written in the configuration file—it runs when its phase comes up in the pipeline. This explains common configuration "bugs" that are not actually bugs but rather misunderstandings of phase ordering. When a configuration behaves unexpectedly, reading the file top to bottom is the wrong approach; the correct questio…