feat(acme): Improve certificate management by adding global ACME configuration support and allowing route-level overrides. Enhanced error messages help identify missing ACME email and misconfigurations (e.g. wildcard domains). Documentation has been updated and new tests added to verify SmartCertManager behavior, ensuring a clearer migration path from legacy implementations.

readme.md

@@ -134,6 +134,14 @@ import {
 
 // Create a new SmartProxy instance with route-based configuration
 const proxy = new SmartProxy({
+  // Global ACME settings for all routes with certificate: 'auto'
+  acme: {
+    email: 'ssl@example.com',      // Required for Let's Encrypt
+    useProduction: false,          // Use staging by default
+    renewThresholdDays: 30,        // Renew 30 days before expiry
+    port: 80                       // Port for HTTP-01 challenges
+  },
+  
   // Define all your routing rules in a single array
   routes: [
     // Basic HTTP route - forward traffic from port 80 to internal service
@@ -141,7 +149,7 @@ const proxy = new SmartProxy({
 
     // HTTPS route with TLS termination and automatic certificates
     createHttpsTerminateRoute('secure.example.com', { host: 'localhost', port: 8080 }, {
-      certificate: 'auto'  // Use Let's Encrypt
+      certificate: 'auto'  // Uses global ACME settings
     }),
 
     // HTTPS passthrough for legacy systems
@@ -350,6 +358,66 @@ interface IRouteAction {
 }
 ```
 
+### ACME/Let's Encrypt Configuration
+
+SmartProxy supports automatic certificate provisioning and renewal with Let's Encrypt. ACME can be configured globally or per-route.
+
+#### Global ACME Configuration
+Set default ACME settings for all routes with `certificate: 'auto'`:
+
+```typescript
+const proxy = new SmartProxy({
+  // Global ACME configuration
+  acme: {
+    email: 'ssl@example.com',         // Required - Let's Encrypt account email
+    useProduction: false,             // Use staging (false) or production (true)
+    renewThresholdDays: 30,           // Renew certificates 30 days before expiry
+    port: 80,                         // Port for HTTP-01 challenges
+    certificateStore: './certs',      // Directory to store certificates
+    autoRenew: true,                  // Enable automatic renewal
+    renewCheckIntervalHours: 24       // Check for renewals every 24 hours
+  },
+  
+  routes: [
+    // This route will use the global ACME settings
+    {
+      name: 'website',
+      match: { ports: 443, domains: 'example.com' },
+      action: {
+        type: 'forward',
+        target: { host: 'localhost', port: 8080 },
+        tls: {
+          mode: 'terminate',
+          certificate: 'auto'  // Uses global ACME configuration
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  ]
+});
+```
+
+#### Route-Specific ACME Configuration
+Override global settings for specific routes:
+
+```typescript
+{
+  name: 'api',
+  match: { ports: 443, domains: 'api.example.com' },
+  action: {
+    type: 'forward',
+    target: { host: 'localhost', port: 3000 },
+    tls: {
+      mode: 'terminate',
+      certificate: 'auto',
+      acme: {
+        email: 'api-ssl@example.com',  // Different email for this route
+        useProduction: true,           // Use production while global uses staging
+        renewBeforeDays: 60            // Route-specific renewal threshold
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}
+
 **Forward Action:**
 When `type: 'forward'`, the traffic is forwarded to the specified target:
 ```typescript