[Feature Request] Add forward proxy support via HTTP_PROXY / HTTPS_PROXY / NO_PROXY environment variables

[aewtemp]

Description

Summary

Homepage currently ignores standard system proxy environment variables (HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, NO_PROXY). All outbound HTTP requests made by Homepage (e.g. for widgets fetching data from external services) bypass any configured system or container-level proxy, making Homepage unusable in environments that require egress traffic to go through a forward proxy.

Problem

In corporate or restricted network environments, outbound internet access is commonly routed through a forward proxy (e.g. Squid, Tinyproxy, corporate MITM proxies). The standard convention on Linux — honored by curl, wget, and most well-behaved applications — is to read the following environment variables:

Variable	Purpose
HTTP_PROXY / http_proxy	Proxy for HTTP requests
HTTPS_PROXY / https_proxy	Proxy for HTTPS requests
NO_PROXY / no_proxy	Comma-separated list of hosts/CIDRs to bypass

Node.js does not pick these up automatically for its built-in fetch / http / https modules. Homepage therefore needs to explicitly implement proxy support.

Affected functionality: Any widget that makes outbound requests to the internet (e.g. Healthchecks.io, Uptime Kuma cloud, weather services, etc.) silently fails or returns ENETUNREACH when behind a forward proxy.

Proposed Solution

Integrate proxy-awareness into Homepage's HTTP client layer using the proxy-agent npm package (or the lower-level proxy-from-env + https-proxy-agent), which together:

1. Read HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, NO_PROXY (case-insensitive, lowercase takes precedence per convention)
2. Provide a drop-in http.Agent / https.Agent that routes requests through the configured proxy
3. Correctly handle NO_PROXY exclusions for local/internal services
   The agent would ideally be applied globally to all outbound requests made by Homepage, so individual widgets do not need to be modified.

// Example using proxy-agent
import { ProxyAgent } from 'proxy-agent';
 
const agent = new ProxyAgent(); // reads HTTP_PROXY / HTTPS_PROXY / NO_PROXY automatically
 
fetch('https://external-service.example.com', { agent });

Alternatively, once Node.js's native --use-env-proxy flag stabilizes (currently experimental), Homepage could opt into it at startup.

Expected Behavior

When HTTP_PROXY=http://proxy.example.com:3128 (and/or HTTPS_PROXY) is set in the environment, all outbound Homepage requests are routed through the specified proxy. Hosts listed in NO_PROXY are contacted directly, as expected.

Current Behavior

Homepage ignores all proxy environment variables. Widgets that contact external services fail in proxy-only environments.

Environment

• Deployment: Docker (also reproducible on bare-metal / non-Docker Linux)
• Node.js does not natively honor proxy env vars — application-level support is required

Additional Context

• This is a common pain point in enterprise/self-hosted environments.
• The proxy-agent package is well-maintained, widely used, and purpose-built for exactly this use case.
• Prior discussion: Homepage (docker) behind squid proxy #4012

Other

No response