Pendekinlink

Pendekinlink is a URL shortener. I built it to test how small a web app can be when the front end holds almost no state and the API holds all of it.

The repo is a pnpm monorepo. apps/api is the service, apps/web is the interface, and packages/db owns the Drizzle schema both sides share.

The API

Hono on Node, with each request going through a small stack.

• Code generation produces the short key and checks it against the database before it commits.
• Rate limiting sits in middleware and keeps its counters in Redis, so a restart does not reset anyone’s budget.
• Drizzle ORM over PostgreSQL via postgres.js.
• Errors are modelled with Effect, which forces the failure path into the signature instead of hiding it in a thrown value.
• pino writes structured logs with a request context attached.

The data model is deliberately thin. A shortlink is a code, a target URL, a click count, and a creation time. The click count is the only thing that changes after creation, and that turned out to be the interesting part. A naive increment takes a row lock on every redirect, so a hot link serialises. Redis absorbs that counter and the database catches up.

The front end

Vite, Tailwind 4, HTMX, and Alpine.js. HTMX handles the form posts and swaps the result into the page. Alpine covers the few things that genuinely need local state, like copying a link and showing the confirmation.

There is no client-side router and no client-side data layer. The page arrives rendered, and the browser gets one small script. For a CRUD tool this size, that is the whole architecture.

Deployment

GitHub Actions builds both apps, copies a compose file to a VPS over SSH, and brings the containers up there. Nginx terminates TLS in front.

The service is currently switched off. I keep the repo public because the rate limiter, the code generator, and the Redis counter are the parts worth reading.