Shorti

A web app that shortens URLs and tracks how often each short link is clicked, live at shorti.al-laktah.com.

I originally built it in 2021 for shorti.xyz. In 2026 I brought it back online: I updated the dependencies to run on current Python and Node, made the domain configurable and packaged the whole app with Docker.

How it works

• Frontend: a React app for shortening links and looking up how often a short link has been clicked.
• API: a small Flask API, served by gunicorn, with three endpoints: shorten a URL, resolve a short code (counting the click), and return a link’s click count.
• Short codes: each URL is hashed with a random salt (SHA-256). The first five characters of the hash, randomly capitalised, become the code; on a collision it moves further along the hash.
• Redirects: opening a short URL loads the React app, which asks the API for the original URL and sends the browser on to it.
• Storage: SQLite, kept in a Docker volume.

Deployment

Docker Compose runs two containers: the Flask API, and a Caddy server that serves the React build and forwards /api/ requests to it. In front of them, a shared Caddy proxy handles HTTPS, so other services can run on the same server.

It all runs on the Oracle Cloud Always Free Arm VM from my al-laktah-cloud project, which sets up the server with Terraform.

Next steps

• Move the database off SQLite
• Make the contact and report forms send their messages
• A proper page for short URLs that don’t exist
• Dark mode, and privacy and terms pages
• Improve the shortening algorithm