An nginx configuration to creating an authenticated, caching, Twitter API proxy.

twitter_api_proxy.conf

# This defines a 10 megabyte cache for the proxy service, and needs to live
# outside of the virtual host configuration. Adjust the path according to
# your environment.
proxy_cache_path  /var/cache/nginx/twitter_api_proxy levels=1:2 keys_zone=twitter_api_proxy:10m;

# The virtual host configuration.
server {

  # If your want to secure your proxy with SSL, replace with the appropriate SSL configuration.
  listen 80;

  # Replace this with the name of the domain you wish to run your proxy on.
  server_name api.twitter.yourdomain.com;
  
  # Replace this with your own document root.
  root /var/www;
  
  # This setting attempts to use files in the document root before
  # hitting the Twitter proxy. This allows you to put a permissive
  # crossdomain.xml file in your document root, and have it show up
  # in the browser.
  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/index.html @twitter;
  }
  
  # The Twitter proxy code!
  location @twitter {
    # Caching settings, to avoid rate limits on the API service.
    proxy_cache twitter_api_proxy;
    proxy_cache_use_stale error updating timeout;
    proxy_cache_valid 200 302 404 5m;  # The server cache expires after 5 minutes - adjust as required.
    proxy_ignore_headers X-Accel-Expires Expires Cache-Control Set-Cookie;
    # Hide Twitter's own caching headers - we're applying our own.
    proxy_hide_header X-Accel-Expires;
    proxy_hide_header Expires;
    proxy_hide_header Cache-Control;
    proxy_hide_header pragma;
    proxy_hide_header set-cookie;
    expires 5m;  # The browser cache expires after 5 minutes - adjust as required.
    # Set the correct host name to connect to the Twitter API.
    proxy_set_header Host api.twitter.com;
    # Add authentication headers - edit and add in your own bearer token.
    proxy_set_header Authorization "Bearer INSERT_YOUR_BEARER_TOKEN"
    # Actually proxy the request to Twitter API!
    proxy_pass https://api.twitter.com;
  }
  
}