Getting Started
Sink is a self-hosted short-link app with visit analytics. It runs on Cloudflare (no VPS required).
1. Fork Sink
Create a fork of the Sink repository in your GitHub account.
2. Choose where to deploy
- Cloudflare Workers — recommended
- Cloudflare Pages — deprecated
Both use Git: Cloudflare builds from your fork and publishes the app.
3. Create Cloudflare resources
In the Cloudflare dashboard, create the services Sink will use. Later you will bind them to the project — binding connects a specific resource to Sink under a designated name.
| Binding name | Cloudflare product | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
DB | D1 (database) | Yes | Stores your links |
KV | KV (key-value store) | Yes | Speeds up redirects |
ANALYTICS | Analytics Engine | Recommended | Visit stats and logs |
R2 | R2 (object storage) | Optional | Backups and social preview images |
AI | Workers AI | Optional | AI-suggested short codes and titles |
For the full experience, create all five. You can add analytics later — see Analytics and Realtime.
After creating D1 and KV, open each resource’s detail page and copy its ID (you will paste it into deploy settings).
4. Configure and deploy
Follow the Workers or Pages guide to connect the fork, add bindings, and set variables.
Set NUXT_SITE_TOKEN yourself
This is your dashboard login password and the password used by API tools. Use a long random string (at least 8 characters, no whitespace) and keep it stable — changing it signs everyone out.
If you skip it, Sink may invent a random password at build time that can change on the next deploy, and you will not be able to log in reliably.
Other settings: configuration reference.
5. First login and first link
- Open
https://your-domain/dashboard - Sign in with the
NUXT_SITE_TOKENyou set - Open Dashboard → Links once
Why open Links once?
The first open finishes a one-time storage setup. Until then, creating links or backups may fail with “storage not ready” (HTTP 423). New installs only need a quick empty check; older KV-only installs migrate data here — see storage setup / migration.
- Create your first short link
The dashboard supports multiple languages. Docs are available in English and Simplified Chinese.