https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_auth_request_module.html
The ngx_http_auth_request_module module (1.5.4+) implements client authorization based on the result of a subrequest. If the subrequest returns a 2xx response code, the access is allowed. If it returns 401 or 403, the access is denied with the corresponding error code. Any other response code returned by the subrequest is considered an error.
location /private/ {
auth_request /auth;
...
}
location = /auth {
proxy_pass ...
proxy_pass_request_body off;
proxy_set_header Content-Length "";
proxy_set_header X-Original-URI $request_uri;
}