Short Links

The short URL is a stable name; the destination is a value attached to it. Edit the destination and the next click goes to the new place. Nothing about the short URL changes, so posters, packaging and QR codes already in the world keep working.

1. 1

   Open the link

   From the Links table, or from its detail page if you came in from analytics.

2. 2

   Replace the destination URL

   The new destination is screened the same way the original was.

3. 3

   Save

   The cached resolution for this link is invalidated on save, so the change takes effect on the next click rather than at the end of a cache window.

The redirect engine is a route handler rather than a page precisely so it can emit any of these four. A redirect from a Server Component is always 307, and a permanent one always 308 — which would make 301 and 302 unreachable.

These are Pro and Business features. Each is independent — a link can require a password, expire on a date and stop after a number of clicks all at once.

Password protection

Set a password of at least four characters. Visitors get a form before the redirect; a correct answer sets a cookie scoped to that link so they are not asked again on the next click. The password is stored as a bcrypt hash, so nobody — including us — can read it back. Attempts are rate limited.

Expiry

Pick a date and time, then choose what happens after it passes:

• Not found — a plain 404, as if the link never existed.
• Message — a page showing text you write, which is the right choice when people will keep arriving from printed material.
• Redirect — send them to a different URL, for example last season’s campaign to the current one.

Click limits

Cap the total number of clicks. When the cap is reached the link is disabled and behaves like a disabled link: it returns 410 Gone with an explanation rather than silently 404ing.

A link can carry an ordered list of rules. On each click the rules are evaluated top to bottom and the first one that matches supplies the destination. If none match, the link’s own destination is used — so the fallback is never undefined.

Rules can be disabled individually without deleting them, which is how you park a seasonal branch until next year.

Set utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term and utm_content on the link. They are merged into the destination’s query string when the redirect is issued, which means the short URL you hand out stays short and the destination still receives complete campaign attribution.

Short link   paddek.com/summer-sale
Destination  https://shop.example.com/collections/summer?ref=newsletter
UTM          source=newsletter  medium=email  campaign=summer-2026

Resolved     https://shop.example.com/collections/summer
             ?ref=newsletter
             &utm_source=newsletter
             &utm_medium=email
             &utm_campaign=summer-2026

Parameters already present on the destination are preserved. A UTM value you set on the link replaces a UTM key of the same name on the destination, so the link is the single source of truth for campaign tagging.

A QR code encodes the short URL, not the destination. That is the point: you can reprint nothing and still change where the code leads.

Styling is a Pro and Business feature; the plain black-on-white code is available on every plan. Scans arrive tagged as QR traffic, so the analytics separate "scanned the poster" from "clicked the tweet" without you setting anything up.

• A link belongs to at most one folder. Folders nest, which suits a client or campaign hierarchy.
• A link can carry up to twenty tags. Tags cut across folders, which suits "paid", "print" or "q3".
• Both appear as filters in the Links table and as scopes in Analytics, so a folder is also a report.
• Deleting a folder does not delete its links — they move to no folder.