LinkyShrinky

A very lightweight URL shortener, made with ASP.NET Core.

LinkyShrinky uses approximately 20-60 MB of RAM and negligible CPU usage, making it a great choice for single-core VPSs with little RAM.

Purpose

I created this project to replace my existing URL shortener, which used a MySQL database requiring too much RAM (over 100 MB) on my VPS.

LinkyShrinky uses a simple json file in place of a typical database.

Usage

LinkyShrinky provides a simple admin dashboard. Log in at /admin

Note: You may use the environment variable ADMIN_PAGE to define another path for /admin (for example administration or dashboard)

During the first login, any credentials used will used to create the admin account.

Alternatively, you may use the API directly by collecting an API key from the admin dashboard. The API provides 3 methods:

• GET /api/links
• POST /api/links
• DELETE /api/links/{slug}

GET /api/links

Returns a list of all shortened links.

Response

{
    "yt": {
        "redirect": "https://www.youtube.com",
        "hits": 5,
        "created": "2026-07-28T02:24:22.4084883+00:00",
        "lastHit": "2026-07-31T02:19:24.2379011+00:00"
    },
    "ttv": {
        "redirect": "https://www.twitch.tv",
        "hits": 2,
        "created": "2026-07-28T02:24:22.6733277+00:00",
        "lastHit": "2026-07-31T02:19:29.1706539+00:00"
    }
}

POST /api/links

Creates a new shortened link.

Request Payload

{
    "redirect": "https://example.com",
    "slug": "ex"
}

Note: slug is optional. A random slug will be generated automatically if it is not provided.

Response

{
    "success": true,
    "slug": "ca6",
    "redirect": "https://google.com/",
    "error": null
}

DELETE /api/links/{slug}

Deletes an existing shortened link.

Response

204 No Content

Docker

This service is designed to be used with Docker.

There are several things you should consider configuring.

Environment Variable

ADMIN_PAGE will change the path for the admin dashboard. This value defaults to admin so the default admin dashboard is accessible at example.com/admin

Example docker-compose.yml

services:
  linkyshrinky:
    image: ghcr.io/blake502/linkyshrinky:latest
    container_name: linkyshrinky
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
    volumes:
      - ./config:/app/config
      - ./keys:/home/app/.aspnet/DataProtection-Keys
    environment:
      - ADMIN_PAGE=admin #The admin dashboard path
      - DOTNET_GCHeapHardLimit=134217728 #Limit RAM usage to 128MiB, useful for systems with little RAM (it rarely exceeds even half of this limit)

TODO

• Clean up API
• Clean up first time setup admin account
• Fix admin path reservation
• File locking