How many redirects does it follow?

Ten. Past that it stops, sets data.chain.truncated: true and reports link.hop_cap_exceeded. Most browsers give up around 20 and curl at 50; a chain that needs more than ten is a chain worth fixing.

Can I expand a shortened URL without opening it?

Yes. Paste the short link; the chain shows every hop and finalUrl is where it ends. The shortener is named in data.shortener.service when the host is one of the 29 the check knows.

Does it show the response headers?

Only the status code per hop and the URL it redirected to. Header inspection is out of scope for this gate.

Why did it stop before the end?

Either the 10-hop cap, or a hop pointed at a private or reserved host or a non-HTTP scheme, which the walker refuses to follow. data.chain.blocked.reason says which.

FREE TOOL

Redirect checker

Paste a URL and see every redirect it takes — each hop with its HTTP status code — and the URL it finally lands on. It follows 301, 302, 303, 307 and 308 responses, stops at 10 hops, and expands any of 29 known link shorteners along the way. It does not show response headers beyond the status, and it does not check whether the final page loads correctly.

INPUT

URL

try

200 OK417 ms (api)

CLEAN

No findings

3 checks run

1 redirect → https://github.com/

Status	URL
301	http://github.com
200	https://github.com/

{
  "ok": true,
  "verdict": "clean",
  "findings": [],
  "data": {
    "chain": {
      "finalUrl": "https://github.com/",
      "hops": [
        {
          "url": "http://github.com",
          "status": 301
        },
        {
          "url": "https://github.com/",
          "status": 200
        }
      ],
      "truncated": false
    },
    "destination": {
      "domain": "github.com",
      "rdap": {
        "ageDays": 6928,
        "createdAt": "2007-10-09T18:20:50.000Z"
      }
    }
  },
  "checks_run": [
    "link.destination_reputation",
    "link.redirect_chain",
    "link.shortener"
  ],
  "checks_skipped": [],
  "meta": {
    "gate": "links",
    "ms": 417,
    "ruleset": "reference-a39927da"
  }
}

The full /v1/links gate also checks

Destination domainURL shortener

Also available through the API.

Join the waitlist /v1/links docs

Live call to the same /v1 endpoint customers use. Rules only on this page; nothing you type is stored.

What it checks

link.redirect_chain — the walk. data.chain.hops[] (URL and status per hop), data.chain.finalUrl, data.chain.truncated (true when the 10-hop cap stopped it), and data.chain.blocked (URL and reason, "scheme" or "host") when a hop was refused. The cap of 10 is tighter than curl's default of 50 and a browser's roughly 20 on purpose: a legitimate chain does not need more.

link.shortener — whether the URL you pasted is on a known shortener host; data.shortener.service names it.

link.destination_reputation — registration date and typosquat check on the final domain; data.destination.rdap.createdAt and ageDays.

What the result means

For this page the chain is the result; the verdict is secondary. clean means the chain finished within 10 hops with no refused hop and a destination domain that raised nothing. The findings that can fire are the same six as on the link checker: link.hop_cap_exceeded (medium), link.shortener_chain (medium), link.unsafe_redirect_target (high), domain.not_registered (high), domain.newly_registered (medium), domain.typosquat (medium).

Why it matters

Redirect chains cost you twice: each hop is a round trip for the visitor, and crawlers give up after a few. A chain that ends somewhere you did not expect is the faster problem to find — an old campaign link on a lapsed domain, a shortener that now points at someone else's page, a tracking hop that swallowed the UTM parameters. The status code per hop is what tells a 301 you meant from a 302 you inherited.

From your own code

curl -s -X POST https://api.stormdoor.dev/v1/links \ -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \ -H "content-type: application/json" \ -d '{"url":"http://github.com"}'

Read data.chain.hops, data.chain.finalUrl and data.chain.truncated. API keys are issued when signups open. Join the waitlist and you will hear first.

Redirect checker

What it checks

What the result means

Why it matters

Redirects,
answered.

From your own code

Read more

Guides about this

Redirect checker

What it checks

What the result means

Why it matters

Redirects,answered.

From your own code

Read more

Guides about this

Redirects,
answered.