How do you configure SSL/TLS (HTTPS) in Uvicorn?

Uvicorn supports HTTPS natively by accepting a certificate and private key. This is useful for local development with HTTPS or for simple single-server deployments where a reverse proxy is not involved.

# Run with SSL (requires certificate and private key)
uvicorn main:app \
    --ssl-keyfile ./key.pem \
    --ssl-certfile ./cert.pem \
    --host 0.0.0.0 \
    --port 443

# With a CA bundle (for mutual TLS / client certificates)
uvicorn main:app \
    --ssl-keyfile ./key.pem \
    --ssl-certfile ./cert.pem \
    --ssl-ca-certs ./ca-bundle.pem

# Programmatic SSL config
import ssl
import uvicorn

if __name__ == "__main__":
    uvicorn.run(
        "main:app",
        ssl_keyfile="./key.pem",
        ssl_certfile="./cert.pem",
        host="0.0.0.0",
        port=443,
    )

# Local development HTTPS with mkcert:
# 1. Install mkcert: brew install mkcert
# 2. mkcert -install
# 3. mkcert localhost 127.0.0.1
# 4. uvicorn main:app --ssl-keyfile localhost-key.pem --ssl-certfile localhost.pem

Production approach: in most production architectures, SSL termination is handled by a reverse proxy (Nginx, Caddy, or a cloud load balancer) rather than by Uvicorn directly. The reverse proxy decrypts HTTPS traffic and forwards plain HTTP to Uvicorn. This pattern improves performance and simplifies certificate management.

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