Reduce

A minimal URL shortener with user accounts, custom short codes, and password-protected links.

Features

• Shorten URLs — works anonymously or logged-in
• User accounts — register / login with username & password (JWT)
• Custom short codes — choose your own slug (logged-in users)
• Protected links — require authentication before redirect (uses account credentials or custom)
• Dashboard — view, edit, and delete your links
• Click tracking — see how many times each link was visited
• QR codes — generated for every shortened URL

Production

• Frontend & Short links: https://r.webark.in
• API: https://api.r.webark.in

Tech Stack

Layer	Stack
Backend	Go · Echo · GORM · SQLite
Frontend	React · TypeScript · Tailwind
Auth	JWT (72 h expiry) · bcrypt

API

Auth

Method	Path	Auth	Description
POST	/auth/register	—	Create account
POST	/auth/login	—	Get JWT token
GET	/auth/me	JWT	Current user info

Links (public)

Method	Path	Auth	Description
POST	/shorten	Optional	Create short link
GET	/:code	—	Resolve short code
POST	/:code/verify	—	Verify credentials for protected link

Links (dashboard)

Method	Path	Auth	Description
GET	/links	JWT	List your links
PUT	/links/:id	JWT	Update a link
DELETE	/links/:id	JWT	Delete a link

Quick Start

Backend

cd backend
# Edit .env and set a secure JWT_SECRET:
# openssl rand -base64 32
go run .

Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Docker

JWT_SECRET=$(openssl rand -base64 32) docker compose up --build

Database

SQLite with two tables:

• users — id, username, password (bcrypt), timestamps
• links — id, user_id (nullable), code (unique), long_url, is_custom, requires_auth, access_username, access_password (bcrypt), click_count, timestamps

Protected Links

When a logged-in user creates a protected link, they can choose:

• Use account credentials — visitors must enter the owner's username/password
• Custom credentials — set specific username/password for this link only

Contributing

Contributions welcome — feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.