# Disable serve static files
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-serve-static-files/66341
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [July 17, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-serve-static-files/66341 "2017-07-17T20:47:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@leo.proctor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/leo.proctor)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-serve-static-files/66341/1 "2017-07-17T20:47:54Z")
Somehow i want to disable public access to assets. In development by `config.serve_static_files = false`, it serves the purpose. It routes requests to upload controller, where i can authenticate or deny access. While in production it doesn’t seem to be working. In my app.yml file
> DISCOURSE\_SERVE\_STATIC\_ASSETS: false
---
### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-serve-static-files/66341/2 "2017-07-17T20:54:37Z")
On production assets are served by nginx:
```plaintext
location ~ ^/assets/(?.+)$ {
expires 1y;
brotli_static on;
gzip_static on;
add_header Cache-Control public,immutable;
}
```
---
### Author:  [@leo.proctor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/leo.proctor)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-serve-static-files/66341/3 "2017-07-17T21:01:01Z")
Ahan, Can I somehow change ngnix configuration from outside container? may be in app.yml?
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### Author:  [@mpalmer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mpalmer)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2017, 10:48pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-serve-static-files/66341/4 "2017-07-17T22:48:00Z")
Yes, you’ll need to write a custom pups config statement to remove the config from the nginx config file.