diff --git a/default.nix b/default.nix
index 58a5ac2..fee9a0e 100644
--- a/default.nix
+++ b/default.nix
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 
       # add to top level because it has a binary
       feedvalidator = final.python312Packages.feedvalidator;
+
+      mkNginxServer = prev.callPackage ./lib/dev-nginx {};
     })
   ];
 }
diff --git a/lib/dev-nginx/default.nix b/lib/dev-nginx/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..914670c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/dev-nginx/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+{
+  writeText,
+  writeShellScriptBin,
+
+  nginx,
+  systemd
+}:
+
+{ siteConfig }:
+let conf = writeText "nginx.conf" ''
+  daemon off;
+  events {}
+  pid /tmp/nginx.pid;
+  http {
+    access_log /dev/stdout;
+
+    client_body_temp_path /tmp;
+    proxy_temp_path /tmp;
+    fastcgi_temp_path /tmp;
+    uwsgi_temp_path /tmp;
+    scgi_temp_path /tmp;
+
+    include ${nginx}/conf/mime.types;
+    default_type application/octet-stream;
+    sendfile on;
+
+    types_hash_max_size 4096;
+    types_hash_bucket_size 128;
+
+    server {
+      server_name localhost;
+      listen 127.0.0.1:8080;
+
+      gzip on;
+      gzip_min_length 256;
+      gzip_proxied expired no-cache no-store private auth;
+      gzip_types text/plain application/xml image/svg+xml text/css text/javascript;
+
+      ${siteConfig}
+    }
+  }
+'';
+in
+  writeShellScriptBin "dev-nginx.sh" ''
+    exec ${systemd}/bin/systemd-run --user -t -pPrivateTmp=true --working-directory="$PWD" ${nginx}/bin/nginx -p "$PWD" -e stderr -c ${conf}
+  ''