deeplinker

A self-hosted deep-link generator for your Instagram bio, with a private analytics dashboard.

Instead of placing a raw destination URL in your bio, use a deeplinker URL such as yourdomain.com/l/some-slug. When someone opens it in an in-app browser, deeplinker attempts to open the destination in the native app or the visitor's actual browser. It always shows a visible Continue button as a fallback.

Each public link open is logged with a timestamp, coarse operating system, browser, device type, and referrer domain. No IP addresses, cookies, or fingerprinting are used for visitor analytics.

Demo

Some screenshots of my deployed deeplinker!

How redirects work

• Android: deeplinker builds an intent:// URL. Android in-app browsers commonly hand this to Chrome or the matching native app. A browser fallback URL is included when no matching app is installed.
• iOS: deeplinker tries the destination app's custom URL scheme first, then attempts the x-safari- escape technique.
• All platforms: a manual Continue button appears after about 1.2 seconds, so a visitor is never stranded if an automatic redirect fails.

Automatic iOS escape behavior is not guaranteed. Apple, Meta, and in-app browser vendors can change these behaviors at any time.

Stack

• Next.js 16 with the App Router
• React 19
• Plain CSS
• Upstash Redis for links and analytics
• Vercel-compatible deployment

Local setup

Star this repo and then fork it!

Install dependencies:

npm install

Create your local environment file:

Copy-Item .env.example .env.local

Generate a secure session secret:

node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))"

Open .env.local and set:

• UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL
• UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN
• DASHBOARD_PASSWORD
• SESSION_SECRET
• NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL

For local development, leave NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL as:

NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL=http://localhost:3000

Start the app:

npm run dev

Then open http://localhost:3000. You will be redirected to /login.

Redis setup

Create an Upstash Redis database, then copy its REST URL and REST token into .env.local.

The application stores data with these keys:

• links:index — set of all slugs
• link:<slug> — link record
• link:<slug>:count — total opens
• link:<slug>:stats — OS, browser, device, and referrer counts
• link:<slug>:daily — daily open counts
• link:<slug>:events — most recent 200 raw events

The dashboard displays the latest 50 events.

Deploying

Deploy the repository to Vercel or another Next.js-compatible host.

Set the same five environment variables in the deployment environment. Change NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL to the real production URL, for example:

NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL=https://links.irtaza.xyz

After deployment, add a custom domain if you want a shorter, more trustworthy link for your social-media bio.

Using the app

1. Visit the deployed site and log in.
2. Enter a full destination URL beginning with https:// or http://.
3. Optionally choose a label, visitor-facing description, and custom slug.
4. Generate the link.
5. Put the resulting /l/<slug> URL in your bio.
6. Use /dashboard to inspect opens, platforms, browsers, referrers, and recent activity.

Privacy

deeplinker does not store visitor IP addresses, set analytics cookies, or fingerprint users. It records only:

• timestamp
• coarse OS
• browser or in-app browser
• device category
• referrer domain

Credits

Made with love by Irtaza (me)! Please star the repo!