Peel Back is a lightweight Bash utility that reveals the true destination behind any URL by peeling away layers of redirects.
It follows both server-side redirects (HTTP 3xx responses) and client-side redirects such as:
- Meta refresh
- JavaScript window.location
- Canonical links
- OpenGraph og:url
- Title-based redirects (used by some services)
This makes it ideal for investigating shortened links, tracking redirects, or verifying where a link actually leads.
- Follow redirect chains to the final destination
- Peel multiple layers of redirects
- Detect soft redirects in HTML (meta, JavaScript, canonical tags)
- Verbose mode to display the entire redirect chain
- Show final response headers
- Batch processing via file input
- Pipe support (stdin input)
- JSON output for scripting or automation
- Fast and lightweight (Bash + curl only)
- Bash
- curl
Most Linux systems already include both.
If curl is missing:
boxforge install curl
Option 1 — ScriptForge
scriptforge
/home/yourname/
Select peelback for installation to /usr/bin/peelback
Then run:
peelback https://example.com
Option 2 — Manual install
git clone https://github.com/fpucore/peelback.git
cd peelback
chmod +x peelback
Then run:
./peelback https://example.com
Option 3 — Run locally
chmod +x peelback
./peelback https://example.com
peelback [OPTIONS]
-v, --verbose Show full redirect chain with status codes
-f, --file Resolve URLs from a file
-m, --max Maximum redirects to follow (default: 30)
-t, --timeout Connection timeout in seconds (default: 10)
-H, --headers Show response headers from the final destination
-j, --json Output results in JSON format
-h, --help Show help message
Resolve a shortened URL
peelback https://bit.ly/abc123
Example output:
→ https://example.com/article [200, 3 layer(s) peeled]
Show the full redirect chain
peelback -v https://t.co/example
Example output:
Peeling: https://t.co/example
────────────────────────────────────────
Layer 0: [301] https://t.co/example
Layer 1: [302] https://example.org/redirect
Layer 2: [200] https://example.com/article
────────────────────────────────────────
Core URL: https://example.com/article
Status Code: 200
Layers: 2
Resolve URLs from a file
urls.txt
Run:
peelback -f urls.txt
Pipe URLs into Peel Back
echo "https://bit.ly/abc" | peelback -
or
cat urls.txt | peelback -
JSON output for scripts
peelback -j https://bit.ly/abc
Example output:
{
"original":"https://bit.ly/abc",
"resolved":"https://example.com/article",
"status":200,
"layers":3,
"soft_redirect":false
}
Show final response headers
peelback -H https://bit.ly/abc
Peel Back uses curl to:
- Follow HTTP redirects
- Capture response headers and bodies
- Detect client-side redirects embedded in HTML
- Continue resolving until the true destination is reached
Soft redirects are detected using pattern matching for:
- meta refresh
- window.location
- og:url
- canonical
- redirect titles used by some services
Peel Back is useful for:
- Investigating shortened URLs
- Verifying tracking links
- Auditing affiliate redirects
- Security research
- Automation scripts
- Understanding complex redirect chains
MIT License
Chris McGimpsey-Jones
chrismcgimpseyjones@duck.com