Proxies (beta)

You can securely connect with resources in your private network using a Modal Proxy. Proxies are a secure tunnel between Apps and exit nodes with static IPs. You can allow-list those static IPs in your network firewall, making sure that only traffic originating from these IP addresses is allowed into your network.

Proxies are unique and not shared between workspaces. All traffic between your Apps and the Proxy server is encrypted using Wireguard.

Modal Proxies are built on top of vprox, a Modal open-source project used to create highly available proxy servers using Wireguard.

Modal Proxies are in beta. Please let us know if you run into issues.

Creating a Proxy

Proxies are available for Team Plan or Enterprise users.

You can create Proxies in your workspace Settings page. Team Plan users can create one Proxy and Enterprise users three Proxies. Each Proxy can have a maximum of five static IP addresses.

Please reach out to support@modal.com if you need greater limits.

Using a Proxy

After a Proxy is online, add it to a Modal Function with the argument proxy=Proxy.from_name("<your-proxy>"). For example:

import modal
import subprocess

app = modal.App(image=modal.Image.debian_slim().apt_install("curl"))

@app.function(proxy=modal.Proxy.from_name("<your-proxy>"))
def my_ip():
    subprocess.run(["curl", "-s", "ifconfig.me"])

@app.local_entrypoint()
def main():
    my_ip.remote()

All network traffic from your Function will now use the Proxy as a tunnel.

The program above will always print the same IP address independent of where it runs in Modal’s infrastructure. If that same program were to run without a Proxy, it would print a different IP address depending on where it runs.

Proxy performance

All traffic that goes through a Proxy is encrypted by Wireguard. This adds latency to your Function’s networking. If are experiencing networking issues with Proxies related to performance, first add more IP addresses to your Proxy (see Adding more IP addresses a Proxy).

Adding more IP addresses to a Proxy

Proxies support up to five static IP addresses. Adding IP addresses improves throughput linearly.

You can add an IP address to your workspace in Settings > Proxies. Select the desired Proxy and add a new IP.

If a Proxy has multiple IPs, Modal will randomly pick one when running your Function.

Proxies and Sandboxes

Proxies can also be used with Sandboxes. For example:

import modal

app = modal.App.lookup("sandbox-proxy", create_if_missing=True)
sb = modal.Sandbox.create(
    app=app,
    image=modal.Image.debian_slim().apt_install("curl"),
    proxy=modal.Proxy.from_name("<your-proxy>"))

process = sb.exec("curl", "-s", "https://ifconfig.me")
stdout = process.stdout.read()
print(stdout)

sb.terminate()

Similarly to our Function implementation, this Sandbox program will always print the same IP address.