# zws-im/zws

Shorten URLs using invisible spaces

Repository: https://github.com/zws-im/zws
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/zws
Homepage: https://zws.im
Language: TypeScript
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: url-shortener, zws, hacktoberfest, postgres, unicode, nodejs, typescript, nextjs, drizzle-orm
Last push: 2026-08-26T16:00:54+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2666, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1848, forks 148 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:43.657571+00:00)

## What it is
ZWS (Zero Width Shortener) is a self-hostable URL shortener that encodes link identifiers using invisible zero-width Unicode characters instead of random alphanumeric strings. It ships with a Next.js frontend, a REST API with OpenAPI documentation, and a Postgres database via Drizzle ORM.

## Use cases
- shorten urls with invisible characters
- self-host a url shortener
- make links that look like they have no slug
- run a privacy-friendly link shortening service
- shorten urls via an api
- hide short link codes using zero-width spaces

## When to choose
- you want a novel shortener where shortened links appear to have no visible slug
- you need a self-hosted shortener with a documented REST API
- you want to integrate shortening into tools like ShareX or custom scripts

## When to avoid
- you need short links that are easy to read, type, or share verbally
- your target platform strips zero-width characters from text
- you need enterprise features like link analytics dashboards or team management

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: http-server, routing, api-framework, web-framework
- domain: web-development, apis, self-hosted
- platform: self-hosted
- tags: url-shortener, zero-width-characters, unicode, nextjs, drizzle-orm, postgres, openapi, nodejs, web-server, docker

## Member repositories
- zws-im/zws (main) score 67

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:43.657571+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:17:49.457095+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/zws-im/zws (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:43.657571+00:00, sha 935e06a999b6)
  - homepage: https://zws.im (fetched 2026-08-29T10:56:32.773153+00:00, sha 939d81e7bd21)
  - site_page: https://zws.im/api-docs (fetched 2026-08-29T10:56:32.782236+00:00, sha 998066d34829)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.