Documentation

Shorten a link

What: Paste your long URL, click Shorten, get a short link to copy or share.

It works without an account. The first link is yours in five seconds. Optional: open Advanced options below the form if you want a custom slug, password, expiry date, or click limit set right away.

If you sign in (free), you also get a dashboard with all your links, click stats, and editing.

Custom slugs (the bit after cutty.dev/)

What: Replace the random cutty.dev/k3n9X with something readable like cutty.dev/sale.

You can use letters, numbers, underscores and dashes (3–40 characters). Spaces and special characters don't fit in a URL — we strip them out.

Detail worth knowing: once you create a slug, it's yours forever. Even if you delete the link later, nobody else can claim that exact slug. We promise stability to people printing your QR code or sharing your link via SMS.

Password-protected links

What: Add a password during creation (or edit). Visitors see a tiny "enter password" screen before being redirected.

Good for: client-only pricing pages, beta access docs, VIP content. After typing the password once, the visitor doesn't have to type it again for 24 hours — the browser remembers.

Detail worth knowing: after 5 wrong attempts from the same IP, we block guesses for 5 minutes. Bots can't brute-force their way in.

QR codes

What: Every link gets a free QR code immediately. Click QR in the dashboard (or right after creating one) and download as PNG (for screens) or SVG (for print).

Use them on flyers, posters, business cards, restaurant menus. They scan instantly on any modern phone — no app needed.

Detail worth knowing: PNGs are cached, so downloads are instant even on slow connections.

UTM tags (the marketing tracking thing)

What: If you do marketing campaigns, you probably know UTMs — those ?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=ads bits that tell Google Analytics where a click came from.

Add yours when creating a link. cutty.dev tacks them onto the destination URL automatically every time someone clicks. No copy-pasting, no broken URLs.

Detail worth knowing: if the destination URL already has UTM tags, yours fill in the missing bits — they never overwrite tags the destination already set.

Expiry dates & click limits

What: Make a link auto-close after a deadline or a number of clicks.

Use expiry for events: "this offer ends Friday, 9 PM". Use click limit for capped giveaways: "first 100 visitors get the discount". You can use both at the same time.

After expiration, visitors see a small "this link has expired" page — no broken white screen. You can reopen the link later by editing it in the dashboard (sets the status back to active).

Click stats

What: For each link, see a daily chart of clicks (last 30 days), the top sources (where the click came from — Twitter, an email, a referral), and top countries.

We don't profile visitors. We don't follow them around other sites. We only count clicks, hash the IP (so the same person doesn't inflate the number by refreshing), and store a geographic country code from their IP.

Available in the dashboard after sign-up. Anonymous links don't collect detailed stats — for that you need an account.

Export to CSV

What: Download all your links with metadata as a spreadsheet file. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers.

Useful for: monthly reporting, backups, sharing campaign data with a teammate. Includes slug, target URL, clicks, creation date, expiry, and status.

Anonymous links & "claim" after sign-up

What: You can shorten up to 30 links per hour without an account (per IP address). Your links are tied to a small cookie in your browser.

If you later create an account, the dashboard offers to "claim" all your anonymous links — one click and they're associated with your new account permanently. Nothing is lost.

Without claiming, your anonymous links still work — but you can't edit them or see their stats, and they'll disappear from your dashboard if you clear cookies.

API & integrations

Public API is on the roadmap (planned for the paid tier). For now, everything goes through the dashboard.

Something not working?

Email hello@cutty.dev. I reply the same day. Status of the app is at /api/healthz.