diff --git a/hosts/by-name/servo/services/lemmy.nix b/hosts/by-name/servo/services/lemmy.nix
index adfdb582..1766ded7 100644
--- a/hosts/by-name/servo/services/lemmy.nix
+++ b/hosts/by-name/servo/services/lemmy.nix
@@ -9,8 +9,10 @@ in {
   services.lemmy = {
     enable = true;
     settings.hostname = "lemmy.uninsane.org";
-    settings.options.federation.enabled = true;
-    settings.options.port = backendPort;
+    settings.federation.enabled = true;
+    # federation.debug forces outbound federation queries to be run synchronously
+    settings.federation.debug = true;
+    settings.port = backendPort;
     # settings.database.host = "localhost";
     # defaults
     # settings.database = {
@@ -34,6 +36,7 @@ in {
   };
   systemd.services.lemmy.environment = {
     RUST_BACKTRACE = "full";
+    RUST_LOG = "debug";
     # upstream defaults LEMMY_DATABASE_URL = "postgres:///lemmy?host=/run/postgresql";
     # - Postgres complains that we didn't specify a user
     # lemmy formats the url as:
@@ -60,24 +63,36 @@ in {
     in {
       # see <LemmyNet/lemmy:docker/federation/nginx.conf>
       # see <LemmyNet/lemmy:docker/nginx.conf>
+      # see <LemmyNet/lemmy-ansible:templates/nginx.conf>
       "/" = {
         # "frontend general requests"
-        proxyPass = "$proxpass";
+        # proxyPass = "$proxpass";
         extraConfig = ''
-          set $proxpass ${ui};
-          if ($http_accept = "application/activity+json") {
-            set $proxpass ${backend};
-          }
-          if ($http_accept = "application/ld+json; profile=\"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams\"") {
-            set $proxpass ${backend};
+          set $proxpass "${ui}";
+          # if ($http_accept = "application/activity+json") {
+          #   set $proxpass "${backend}";
+          # }
+          # if ($http_accept = "application/ld+json; profile=\"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams\"") {
+          #   set $proxpass "${backend}";
+          # }
+
+          # XXX: lemmy-ansible nginx uses this maximally broad redirection
+          if ($http_accept ~ "^application/.*$") {
+            set $proxpass "${backend}";
           }
           # XXX: POST redirection occurs in docker/nginx.conf but not docker/federation/nginx.conf
-          # if ($request_method = POST) {
-          #   set $proxpass ${backend};
-          # }
+          if ($request_method = POST) {
+            set $proxpass "${backend}";
+          }
+
+          proxy_pass $proxpass;
 
           # Cuts off the trailing slash on URLs to make them valid
           rewrite ^(.+)/+$ $1 permanent;
+
+          proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
+          proxy_set_header Host $host;
+          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
         '';
       };
       "~ ^/(api|pictrs|feeds|nodeinfo|.well-known)" = {