Customization on vanityURLs

Making f-l.ca feel like mine

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I have been using vanityURLs since 2024. That is the useful boundary. The engine stays boring and the public surface gets personality.

For f-l.ca, I wanted something else, the engine stays boring and the public surface feel unmistakably mine.

English home page

English lookup page

English 404 fallback

English expired status

English disabled status

English maintenance status

French home page

French lookup page

French 404 fallback

French expired status

French disabled status

French maintenance status

For the mechanical path, see Brand and Custom overrides.

Edit custom, leave defaults boring

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The fastest way to ruin a small self-hosted tool is to edit upstream files in place.

It works once. Then the next upgrade asks a dull question with expensive consequences: which files are product defaults, which files are local decisions, and which files are generated output?

vanityURLs avoids that by keeping three layers:

Layer	Owner	Rule
`defaults/` and `scripts/`	product	refresh from upstream
`custom/`	instance	review and preserve
`build/` and generated `src/`	build	replace freely

That boundary is not bureaucracy. It is what keeps upgrades from becoming archaeology.

Make the short domain look owned

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A short-link domain is tiny, but people still read it as a signal.

It appears in emails, slides, social profiles, QR codes, documentation, incident updates, and chat messages. If the domain looks intentional, the link feels safer before anyone clicks it.

This is the useful part of branding vanityURLs: make the redirector obviously yours without turning the first deployment into a design project.

Where to start customizing vanityURLs

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Once the Quickstart works, the redirector is already useful. Customization is the part where it becomes yours: your links, your public pages, your brand, your policies, your access rules, and your operating habits.

You do not need to customize everything at once. Start with the area that hurts most.

Goal	Start here
Change the public look and static pages	Custom overrides
Configure the split-color wordmark and brand assets	Brand
Add, inspect, or update short links	LNK and Link format
Add time-based destinations	Scheduled links
Decide which languages to publish	Internationalization
Configure jurisdiction and public trust contacts	Jurisdiction
Protect private operational paths	Access control
Protect the domain before traffic reaches the Worker	Network protection
Configure redirect analytics	Analytics
Tune allow/block policy	Policy and blocklist

The nicest path is usually not linear. A personal instance might start with links and branding. A team instance might start with Access control and owner labels. A public marketing domain might start with legal pages, analytics, and network protection.