lonk

lonk is a self-hosted link shortener: a REST API for creating short links (with QR codes and optional custom response headers), live dead-link checks, a lonk command-line client, and an embeddable web UI — all served from a single Rust binary with a SQLite database.

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/GeorgeIpsum/lonk && cd lonk
npm install && npm run build
cargo run --bin lonkd            # web UI + API on http://127.0.0.1:8000
cargo install --path crates/lonk-cli
lonk setup http://127.0.0.1:8000 && lonk https://example.com/some/long/url

The first two commands build the web UI (required once, before cargo builds lonkd — see Customizing the UI). cargo run --bin lonkd starts the server; cargo install puts the lonk binary on your PATH; the last line configures the CLI’s default profile and prints your first short link.

Guide

• Running the server — lonkd, environment variables, full API reference with request/response examples.
• The lonk CLI — install, setup, shortening URLs, headers, QR codes, status, exit codes.
• Custom response headers — what they can and can’t do, use cases, validation rules.
• Customizing the UI — the bundled web UI, hot-reload development, and serving your own UI via LONK_WEB_DIR.
• Deployment — running lonkd as a systemd service or launchd daemon, logs, exposure caveats, backups.