I'm using Lando for local development which is like Docker Compose, just a bit more DX focused.

Lando offers a streamlined experience but I didn't like the .lnd.site domains for my projects. So I want to use another one - in this case .code domains. The Lando docs on using a custom domain are not that great and it didn't work for me out of the box.

This post will provide step-by-step instructions on how to setup a custom domain for local development projects using dnsmasq - this will also work besides Lando.

Install & configure dnsmasq

I will use Homebrew for convenience since the DNS service is automatically booted on system startup.

brew install dnsmasq

Lando config

I've modified the Lando config to use a custom domain name and also enable the Traefik dashboard on http://127.0.0.1:50572/dashboard/

proxy: "ON"
proxyName: lando-proxy
proxyCommand:
  - /entrypoint.sh
  - "--log.level=DEBUG"
  - "--api.insecure=true"
  - "--api.dashboard=true"
  - "--providers.docker=true"
  - "--entrypoints.https.address=:443"
  - "--entrypoints.http.address=:80"
  - "--providers.docker.exposedbydefault=false"
  - "--providers.file.directory=/proxy_config"
  - "--providers.file.watch=true"
proxyCustom:
  api:
    dashboard: true
    insecure: true
domain: code
stats:
  - report: false
channel: stable

Option 1: Local DNS only for .code

This option will make your local DNS server only handle local domains.

• Good: Makes your local DNS server kinda secondary

• Good: Most other things work if you f*ck up

• Bad: Cached responses from external DNS providers can confuse

Create resolver

This will instruct macOS to resolve code TLDs with our local nameserver. Other domain names will be forwarded to our systems default DNS servers.

# Create .code resolver
echo "nameserver 127.0.0.1" | sudo tee /etc/resolver/code

# Verify it's registered
scutil --dns | grep code

Configure dnsmasq config for the .code domain

This will instruct dnsmasq to resolve and *.code DNS queries to localhost 127.0.0.1

/opt/homebrew/etc/dnsmasq.d/code.conf

# Add domains which you want to force to an IP address here.
# The example below send any host in double-click.net to a local
# web-server.
address=/code/127.0.0.1

# For debugging purposes, log each DNS query as it passes through
# dnsmasq.
log-queries
log-facility=/var/log/dnsmasq.log

# Include all files in a directory which end in .conf
conf-dir=/opt/homebrew/etc/dnsmasq.d/,*.conf

Option 2: Local DNS as single-source-of-truth

This guide will make your local DNS server the only DNS server your system relies on. DNS calls to unknown domains will be forwarded by your local DNS server to third party providers.

• Good: Single source of truth for configuration

• Bad: No DNS if your setup breaks

• Bad: doesn't work with some VPNs

Configure dnsmasq config for the .code domain

This will instruct dnsmasq to resolve and *.code DNS queries to localhost 127.0.0.1

/opt/homebrew/etc/dnsmasq.d/code.conf

# Add other name servers here, with domain specs if they are for
# non-public domains.
server=9.9.9.9
server=149.112.112.112

# Add domains which you want to force to an IP address here.
# The example below send any host in double-click.net to a local
# web-server.
address=/code/127.0.0.1

# For debugging purposes, log each DNS query as it passes through
# dnsmasq.
log-queries
log-facility=/var/log/dnsmasq.log

# Include all files in a directory which end in .conf
conf-dir=/opt/homebrew/etc/dnsmasq.d/,*.conf

Setup system wide DNS

Now we'll tell macOS to use our local dnsmasq name server for all DNS queries.

1. Go to System Preferences

2. Go to Network

3. Select your Network Interface

4. Press the Details... button

5. Go to the DNS section

6. Add 127.0.0.1 as DNS server

Now, restart your system and you should be able to access your Lando projects on your new custom domain.

Note on using VPNs

When using VPNs like Mullvad with this configuration, you may run into issues where your local dnsmasq server can not forward DNS queries to other DNS servers. This is a known issue with Mullvad VPN.

Your best bet now is just to add the project Domains to your /etc/hosts file.

Debug

Rebuild Lando projects

If you've already built projects with Lando, make sure to rebuild them so all traffic is correctly routed.

lando rebuild -y

Verify dnsmasq is running

sudo brew services restart dnsmasq
sudo brew services stop dnsmasq

ps aux | grep dnsmasq

Start dnsmasq manually to see errors

For this, you need to stop any processed run by Homebrew.

sudo dnsmasq --no-daemon --log-queries

Check dnsmasq configuration

Ensure 127.0.0.1 is the first DNS server.

dnsmasq --test

cat /usr/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf
cat /etc/resolver/code

Check if your macOS firewall is disabled

The following command should output "Firewall is disabled. (State = 0)"

sudo /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --getglobalstate

Check if macOS is using dnsmasq as DNS server

1. Go to System Preferences

2. Go to Network

3. Select your Network Interface

4. Press the Details... button

5. Go to the DNS section

6. Add 127.0.0.1 as DNS server

Test DNS resolve

dig my-project.code
nslookup my-project.code

In the dig output, you should get something like

;; ANSWER SECTION:
my-project.code.      0       IN      A       127.0.0.1

scutil --dns

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