// the find
muleiwu/dwz-server
Muleiwu URL Shortener (dwz-server) combines short-link management, multi-domain support, access policies, A/B testing, marketing attribution, and click analytics in one self-hosted platform.
A self-hosted URL shortener written in Go (Gin + GORM) that goes way past basic short-link CRUD into multi-domain routing, access policies, A/B testing, and click analytics, all shipped as a single binary with an embedded Vue admin UI. Aimed at teams who want to run their own link infrastructure instead of paying for Bitly/Rebrandly, and are willing to self-host and read Chinese docs to get full value.
It actually has tests that look like they came from real incidents — shortlink_dedup_test.go, shortlink_p0_regression_test.go, bind_error_test.go — not just happy-path smoke tests. Deployment scales down cleanly: SQLite + in-memory cache + local ID generator for a single instance, or MySQL/PostgreSQL + Redis for multi-instance, without code changes. Migrations are split into mysql/postgresql/sqlite directories with an explicit 'never edit published migrations, add new ones to all three dialects' rule, which is the right discipline for a project supporting three databases at once. The redirect path (cache fallback, security gate, A/B split) is diagrammed from the actual code, not hand-wavy architecture docs.
It ships under a custom non-OSS license that blocks redistributing derivative versions — read that before building anything on top of it, not after. Most of the documentation that matters operationally (configuration reference, API reference, feature matrix, dependency security notes) is Chinese-only despite the English README, so non-Chinese-speaking teams are flying partly blind on anything beyond quick start. The README itself flags a nasty footgun: if a reverse proxy rewrites the Host header, short links 404 publicly while the admin panel and health check stay green — that's the kind of thing that eats a debugging afternoon in production. Feature scope is wide for a URL shortener — OIDC, workspaces, A/B testing, marketing attribution, bot detection all in one binary — which means more surface area to secure and keep working than a tool that just does redirects well.