Shorty — URL shortener + QR designer stack

Production-ready, self-hosted stack:

• Kutt for link shortening: short links at https://mifi.me, admin UI at https://link.mifi.me
• QR Designer at https://qr.mifi.dev: styled QR codes with optional Kutt shortening, logo upload, export (SVG, PNG, PDF). Protected by Traefik BasicAuth.

Designed for Docker/Portainer with Traefik. Uses pnpm everywhere; no Tailwind.

Prerequisites

• Traefik with:
  • External network marina-net (create with docker network create marina-net if needed)
  • Cert resolver (e.g. letsencrypt or lets-encrypt — adjust labels in docker-compose.yml to match your Traefik)
• DNS: A records for mifi.me, link.mifi.me, qr.mifi.dev pointing to the host running Traefik
• Bind mount paths on the host (create if missing):
  • /mnt/config/docker/kutt/postgres — Kutt Postgres data
  • /mnt/config/docker/kutt/redis — Kutt Redis data
  • /mnt/config/docker/qr/db — qr-api SQLite directory
  • /mnt/config/docker/qr/uploads — qr-api uploads (logos)

Kutt setup

1. Deploy the stack (see below). On first run, open https://link.mifi.me and create an admin account.
2. In Kutt admin: Settings → API (or Account → API), create an API key.
3. Set KUTT_API_KEY in the environment for qr-api (and optionally for local dev). The QR app uses this to shorten URLs via the backend; qr-api is not exposed publicly.

Deploy (Portainer)

Option A — Registry + webhook (recommended for CI/CD)
Use prebuilt images and redeploy on push via webhook:

1. In Portainer: Stacks → Add stack. Use docker-compose.portainer.yml (paste or pull from repo).
2. Set env vars:
   • Required: DB_PASSWORD, JWT_SECRET
   • Optional: REGISTRY (default git.mifi.dev), IMAGE_TAG (default latest), KUTT_API_KEY
3. Deploy. Then in the stack: Webhooks → add webhook. Copy the URL and add it as secret portainer_webhook_url in Woodpecker (repo secrets). On each push to main, the pipeline builds multi-arch images, pushes to the registry, and triggers this webhook to redeploy the stack.

Option B — Build from source
For one-off or local deploys without CI:

1. In Portainer: Stacks → Add stack. Use docker-compose.yml (builds qr-api and qr-web from Dockerfiles).
2. Set required env vars: DB_PASSWORD, JWT_SECRET, and optionally KUTT_API_KEY.
3. Deploy. No ports are exposed; Traefik handles ingress.

Env vars and .env.example

Copy .env.example to .env and set values for Docker Compose / production:

• DB_PASSWORD (required) — Postgres password for Kutt
• JWT_SECRET (required) — Kutt JWT secret (use a long random string)
• KUTT_API_KEY (optional) — Kutt API key for qr-api shorten feature (create in Kutt UI first)

For local dev inside the devcontainer, env vars for qr-api (DB_PATH, UPLOADS_PATH, KUTT_API_KEY, QR_API_URL) are set in .devcontainer/devcontainer.json so you don’t need a .env file to run qr-api and qr-web with pnpm.

Local run (Docker Compose)

From repo root, after copying .env.example to .env and setting values:

docker compose up -d

For local dev without Traefik, you can add a ports override for qr_web (e.g. 3000:3000) and access the QR app at http://localhost:3000. Kutt would need its own ports if you want to test shortening locally.

Development with Devcontainer

Yes — run locally inside the devcontainer. The devcontainer is the intended environment for development and testing.

1. Open the repo in VS Code/Cursor and use Dev Containers: Reopen in Container (or Codespaces).
2. pnpm install runs automatically. Env vars for qr-api are set in devcontainer.json (DB_PATH, UPLOADS_PATH, KUTT_API_KEY, QR_API_URL) so you can run qr-api and qr-web without a .env file.
3. In the container, start the apps:
   • qr-api: pnpm --filter qr-api dev (listens on 8080)
   • qr-web: pnpm --filter qr-web dev (listens on 3000)
4. Open the forwarded ports (3000 = qr-web, 8080 = qr-api). Data and uploads are stored under .data/ in the repo (gitignored).
5. For full stack (Kutt + qr-api + qr-web in Docker), run docker compose up from the host (or from inside the container if Docker-in-Docker is enabled). Set DB_PASSWORD, JWT_SECRET, and optionally KUTT_API_KEY in .env for that.

Ports 3000 and 8080 are forwarded by the devcontainer.

Repo structure

• docker-compose.yml — Compose that builds qr-api and qr-web from source (local or one-off Portainer).
• docker-compose.portainer.yml — Compose that uses registry images; for Portainer + CI/CD webhook redeploys.
• qr-api/ — Node/TS Express API: SQLite projects, uploads, shorten proxy to Kutt. Not exposed via Traefik.
• qr-web/ — Next.js (App Router) + Mantine QR designer; proxies all API calls to qr-api server-side.
• .woodpecker/ci.yml — CI: install, format check, lint, test, build on PR/push/tag.
• .woodpecker/deploy.yml — Deploy: build qr-api and qr-web (multi-arch amd64/arm64), push to registry, trigger Portainer webhook. Runs on push/tag to main after CI.
• .devcontainer/ — Devcontainer for local dev.

Security

• qr-api is only on the backend network; only qr-web (and other backend services) can reach it. No Traefik router for qr-api.
• qr-web is exposed at qr.mifi.dev with Traefik BasicAuth (htpasswd user mifi). Set your own password and update the middleware label if needed.
• Kutt is public at mifi.me and link.mifi.me; use Kutt’s own auth (admin account, API keys).

qr-border-plugin (optional)

The QR designer uses qr-code-styling for dots, corners, colors, and error correction. The optional qr-border-plugin (from lefe.dev marketplace) adds border styling but depends on @lefe-dev/lefe-verify-license, which may involve licensing/watermark behavior. This stack uses qr-code-styling only by default; you can add qr-border-plugin from npm or GitHub if desired and document any license terms.

CI/CD (Woodpecker)

• CI (.woodpecker/ci.yml): on every PR/push to main/tag — pnpm install --frozen-lockfile, format check, lint, test, build. Requires pnpm-lock.yaml committed.
• Deploy (.woodpecker/deploy.yml): on push/tag to main after CI — builds shorty-qr-api and shorty-qr-web as multi-arch (linux/amd64, linux/arm64), pushes to git.mifi.dev/mifi-holdings/shorty-qr-api and shorty-qr-web, then POSTs the Portainer webhook to redeploy the stack.

Secrets (repo or org): gitea_registry_username, gitea_package_token, portainer_webhook_url.

Local build/push test (before committing):
From repo root: build with buildx and push to your registry, or run docker compose -f docker-compose.yml build to verify builds.

Code style and tooling

• TypeScript everywhere.
• Prettier: tabWidth 4, spaces (no tabs), singleQuote, trailingComma all, semi.
• ESLint for TS/React/Next in qr-web; shared root config for qr-api.
• pnpm only; pnpm-lock.yaml is committed and is the single lockfile (no package-lock.json or yarn.lock).
• Tests: Vitest (qr-api and qr-web).