Rewrite rule nginx, token

I have a java application which is behind nginx proxy pass. When the URL is called the application automatically creates a path for the served content. So when you call https://somedomain.com you get https://somedomain.com/todayisaniceday This is the the proxy pass directive and the rewrite rule in my nginx: location /URI{ proxy_pass http://IP:PORT/URI ; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr; proxy_set_header Host $http_host; } location ~ ^/([a-zA-Z0-9=\?]+)$ { rewrite ^/(.*)$ / break; } I'm implementing one token authentication mechanism. What I would like to achieve is the following: when you call: https://somedomain.com/something?jwt=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIiwibmFtZSI6IkpvaG4gRG9lIiwiYWRtaW4iOnRydWV9.TJVA95OrM7E2cBab30RMHrHDcEfxjoYZgeFONFh7HgQ The URL will stay and will be not rewritten by the java application. So basically when there is this string ?jwt= in the url it should keep it and everything behind it. I was trying something like this: rewrite ^/(.*)$ /?jwt=$1 break; but without success. Any ideas ? Thanks for the help.