# Blocking HTTP Requests

Learn how to block requests in Caddy

Caddy is the web server that lives between your application and the outside world. It reverse proxies requests to your application, handles SSL, and serves static files. Thanks to Caddy, we can also customize how our applications handle requests.

For example, running a Ruby application that should never bother with .php requests? Update your app's Caddy routes to the following and any .php request paths will now return 404s without hitting your application.

```
@php path *.php
respond @php 404

%{default}
```

`@php` defines a Caddy [matcher](https://caddyserver.com/docs/caddyfile/concepts#matchers) that handles requests that match \*.php in the path.

`respond` is a Caddy [directive](https://caddyserver.com/docs/caddyfile/directives) and tells it to respond with a `404` for any `@php` matched requests.

`%{default}` is a variable that Hatchbox uses to inject the default Caddy routes for your application. This includes static file serving from the public directory, reverse proxying, etc.