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github-actions[bot] edited this page Sep 29, 2026 · 3 revisions

Installation

Option 1 — Docker Compose (recommended)

Requires Docker and Docker Compose.

git clone https://github.com/anand34577/shortr.git
cd shortr
cp .env.example .env      # set SHORTR_BASE_URL at minimum
docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:8080/app/setup once to create the first admin account (this route disables itself after the first admin exists).

PostgreSQL instead of SQLite:

docker compose --env-file .env -f deploy/docker-compose.postgres.yml up -d

Behind Nginx Proxy Manager (TLS termination, your own domain):

docker compose --env-file .env -f deploy/docker-compose.npm.yml up -d

See deploy/NGINX_PROXY_MANAGER.md for the full walkthrough, including correct client-IP forwarding so analytics and rate limiting see real visitor IPs, not the proxy's.

Option 2 — Prebuilt binary

Download the binary for your platform from the Releases page and check it against the SHA256SUMS file from the same release:

curl -LO https://github.com/anand34577/shortr/releases/latest/download/shortr-linux-amd64
curl -LO https://github.com/anand34577/shortr/releases/latest/download/SHA256SUMS
sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS
chmod +x shortr-linux-amd64
SHORTR_BASE_URL=https://links.example.com ./shortr-linux-amd64

Available files: shortr-linux-amd64, shortr-linux-arm64, shortr-darwin-amd64, shortr-darwin-arm64 and shortr-windows-amd64.exe.

On first run with no users in the database, visit /app/setup to create the first admin account (or set SHORTR_ADMIN_EMAIL / SHORTR_ADMIN_PASSWORD to seed one non-interactively — see Configuration).

Option 3 — systemd (bare metal / VM)

sudo install -m 0755 shortr-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/shortr
sudo mkdir -p /etc/shortr
sudoedit /etc/shortr/env        # SHORTR_BASE_URL=https://links.example.com
sudo cp deploy/shortr.service /etc/systemd/system/shortr.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now shortr

Put your SHORTR_* variables in /etc/shortr/env, one KEY=value per line — see Configuration. The unit runs as a dynamic user, keeps its data in /var/lib/shortr, and restarts on failure.

Option 4 — build from source

Requires Go 1.26+ and Node 20+.

git clone https://github.com/anand34577/shortr.git
cd shortr
make build          # builds web/ then the Go binary into bin/shortr
SHORTR_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080 ./bin/shortr

make release cross-compiles linux/darwin/windows × amd64/arm64 into dist/ with a SHA256SUMS file — the same thing CI does on a tagged push.

Verifying it's up

curl -fsS http://localhost:8080/healthz   # liveness
curl -fsS http://localhost:8080/readyz    # readiness (DB reachable)
shortr config check                       # validate config without starting the server
shortr version

Shortr

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