A Universal Short URL Service Callable by Anyone and AI

Discover how dco.ink empowers users, developers, and AI agents with free, registration-less, and omnipresent URL shortening capabilities.

dco.ink Team · 1/1/2019

A Universal Short URL Service Callable by Anyone and AI

In an increasingly walled-off Internet, basic tools are often hidden behind paywalls, mandatory registrations, and endless captchas. At dco.ink, we believe that URL shortening is a fundamental utility—one that should be universally accessible.

That is why we have built a service designed to be called by anyone, anywhere, and even by AI agents.

1. Free to Use Without Login

We have removed the biggest friction point in modern web services: the signup wall.

Whether you are a casual user sharing a link on social media or an AI agent dynamically generating resources, you can use our core short URL generation API instantly.

  • Zero Registration Required: No need to provide an email or connect a social account.
  • Always Free: Our core shortening service is permanently free for standard usage.
  • Privacy First: Anonymous links are protected by our strict zero-tracking policy. We don’t build user profiles from your link generation habits.

2. Multiple Ways to Call: Web, CLI, In-App, and Browser JS

A truly universal service must exist wherever developers and users need it. We have designed our API to be completely unrestrictive (thanks to our fully relaxed CORS policy) and incredibly easy to integrate:

Web Browser (Frontend JS)

Building a Vue, React, or vanilla HTML app? You can fetch our API directly from your user’s browser. No backend proxy needed.

// Run this directly in your browser console or frontend app
fetch('https://api.dco.ink/api/links', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({ url: 'https://example.com/very/long/url' })
})
.then(res => res.json())
.then(data => console.log('Short URL:', data.short_url));

Command Line (CLI)

Automating a bash script or terminal workflow? A simple curl command is all it takes to generate a short link instantly.

curl -X POST https://api.dco.ink/api/links \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"url":"https://example.com/very/long/url"}'

In-App Integration (Python)

Whether you are writing Python, Node.js, Rust, or Go, our simple REST API integrates seamlessly with standard HTTP clients.

import requests

response = requests.post(
    'https://api.dco.ink/api/links',
    json={'url': 'https://example.com/very/long/url'}
)
print("Short URL:", response.json().get('short_url'))

AI Agents & LLMs

With our simple payload structure, autonomous AI agents can natively call our API to shorten links in real-time during conversations. Simply provide this schema to your AI:

{
  "name": "create_short_link",
  "description": "Shorten a long URL using dco.ink",
  "parameters": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "url": { "type": "string", "description": "The long URL to shorten" }
    },
    "required": ["url"]
  }
}

Unified JSON Response

Regardless of how you interact with our API—whether through the browser, a terminal, a backend application, or an AI agent—the response is always a clean, unified JSON structure. There is no need to parse complex XML or handle erratic schemas.

{
  "short_code": "abcd12",
  "short_url": "https://dco.ink/abcd12",
  "target_url": "https://example.com/very/long/url"
}

3. Committed to Becoming Internet Infrastructure, Benefiting All Humanity

We envision dco.ink not just as a product, but as a public good—a piece of modern internet infrastructure.

By decentralizing access and removing barriers, we are building a foundation that empowers open-source creators, independent developers, non-profits, and the next generation of AI tools. We handle the complex scaling, global edge network caching, and malicious site filtering (via Google Safe Browsing and Cloudflare URL Scanner), so you can focus on building what matters.

Our ultimate goal is simple: to make URL routing lightning-fast, entirely safe, and universally accessible, benefiting the entire global internet ecosystem.

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