Modern, Secure, and Team-Ready

A beautiful, self-hostable URL shortener and redirector for teams, companies, and power users. Easily create, manage, and share custom short URLs with a modern dashboard, Docker support, and robust security.

Screenshots

Modern dashboard for managing all your shortcuts.

Version page with live commit info and all accessible URLs.

Edit shortcut UI with real-time validation and upstream checks.

Tutorial for creating dynamic shortcuts with variables.

Dynamic shortcut example: Use variables in your URLs, e.g. /jsonpost/10 → https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/10

Beautiful redirect page with countdown and dark mode support.

Success page after creating a shortcut, with confetti and sharing options.

Upstream logs: see all upstream shortcut checks and results.

Key Features

Modern UI: Clean, responsive dashboard and success pages using Tailwind CSS and SVG/FontAwesome icons.
Config as JSON: All settings stored in data/redirect.config.json (auto-created with secure defaults).
Secure by Default: Random admin password generated on first run.
Docker-Ready: Official image with persistent data and easy volume/bind mount support.
Reverse Proxy Friendly: Works behind Nginx, Traefik, etc.
Robust Testing: Pytest-based tests for config and DB logic.
Audit & Stats: Tracks access count, creation/update times, and IPs for each shortcut.
Dynamic Shortcuts: Supports static and dynamic (parameterized) redirects.
Version Info: /version page shows live version, commit info, and all accessible URLs (with copy/open buttons).

Use Cases

Team/Company Shortcuts

Share memorable links like r/zoom or r/docs across your team.
Centralize all internal URLs for onboarding, meetings, and resources.
Deploy on a server and use DNS or hosts file for r/ shortcuts.

Personal Productivity

Quickly create short links for your most-used sites.
Use dynamic shortcuts for parameterized redirects (e.g., r/meetwith/raj).
Run locally with Docker or Python, with secure admin access.

Company-Wide DNS/Hosts

Make r/ shortcuts available to your whole company via DNS or hosts file.
Automate setup with provided scripts for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Restrict admin access and audit all changes.

Self-Hosted & Cloud

Deploy on-premises, in the cloud, or on your own device.
Persistent data with Docker volumes or bind mounts.
Production-ready with Gunicorn, Waitress, or Flask.

Quick Start

Docker (Recommended)

docker run -d --restart unless-stopped -p 80:80 -v redirect_data:/app/data --name redirect rajlabs/redirect

Or use a bind mount for easy access to data:

docker run -d --restart unless-stopped -p 80:80 -v "${PWD}/data:/app/data" --name redirect rajlabs/redirect

Manual (Python)

pip install -r requirements.txt
python app.py

Automated Hostname Setup

Windows: ./autostart-windows.ps1
macOS: bash autostart-macos.sh
Linux: bash autostart-linux.sh

Or run the scripts in scripts/ directly to only add the r host entry.

FAQ

How do I make r/ shortcuts work for everyone?
Deploy on a server and set up DNS or hosts file for r (see README for details).
Is it secure?
Yes! Admin password is random by default, and you can restrict access by IP or VPN.
Can I use it for personal links?
Absolutely! Run locally with Docker or Python and use for your own shortcuts.
How do I update?
Just pull the latest Docker image and restart, or update your code and restart the app.
Where is the data stored?
All config and DB files are in the data/ directory (bind mount or volume for Docker).

Upstream Shortcut Checking & Integration

Prevent Shortcut Conflicts with Upstream Checks

Before creating or editing a shortcut, the app checks all configured upstreams (e.g., Bitly, go/, your legacy shortener) to see if the shortcut already exists elsewhere.
If a shortcut is found in any upstream, you see a real-time log and are prevented from creating a conflicting shortcut.
If no upstreams have the shortcut, you can safely create it.
All checks and results are shown in a live UI log for transparency.

Integrate with Existing Redirect Solutions

Add any existing redirector (Bitly, go/, custom, etc.) as an upstream in the config or UI.
Specify the base_url, fail_url (the URL returned for non-existent shortcuts), and fail_status_code (e.g., 404).
Example config for an upstream:

{
  "name": "bitly",
  "base_url": "https://bit.ly/",
  "fail_url": "https://bitly.com/404",
  "fail_status_code": 404
}

You can manage upstreams in the UI at Upstream Config or by editing data/redirect.config.json directly.

How Existing Redirectors Can Integrate

Any redirector that returns a unique URL or status code for non-existent shortcuts can be used as an upstream.
Supports both public and private/internal shorteners.
Allows seamless migration and coexistence with legacy solutions.

Key Features & Improvements (2025)

Gunicorn-powered serving for high concurrency and fast production performance (multi-worker, robust, Docker-ready).
Redis in-memory cache for ultra-low-latency shortcut and upstream cache lookups (optional, recommended for production).
Upstream shortcut caching: successful upstream lookups are cached in both SQLite and Redis for instant future redirects.
Configurable upstream cache: enable/disable via redirect.config.json ("upstream_cache": { "enabled": true }), default enabled.
Modern admin UI for viewing, resyncing, and purging upstream cache entries, with dark mode and mobile support.
Resync All and Purge All actions for upstream cache, with robust error handling and double confirmation for purging.
Consistent redirect logic: Upstream cache hits use the same redirect/delay logic as local shortcuts.
Improved error diagnostics and logging for all cache and upstream operations, with clear UI feedback.

Admin Config Improvements (June 2025)

The Admin Config page now shows a summary modal before saving changes, allowing you to confirm or cancel.
The summary modal only appears if you actually change a value (deep equality for booleans/objects, not just string compare).
WIP badge and flask icon are shown on the config page and nav bar.
Admin tools dropdown is fully keyboard accessible, click-only, and does not block other UI elements.
Config save logic is more reliable: changes are applied immediately and confirmed visually.

View on GitHub