🔐 Authentication

Two options: (a) JWT from the login (ritter-systems.de account) or (b) API key (30 characters, granted to Premium users by the administrator). Programmatic API access is reserved for Premium/Overall-Premium users — Free/Registered users use the web interface.

Authorization: Bearer <JWT from the login>

X-API-Key: <30-character API token (Premium)>

🔗 Create link

Create a new short link.

Request body

{
  "target_url": "https://example.com/very/long/url",
  "custom_code": "my-link",    // Optional, 3-50 chars (Premium)
  "payment_type": "free"
}

Response (success)

{
  "success": true,
  "message": "Link created successfully",
  "link": {
    "id": 123,
    "short_code": "abc123",
    "short_url": "https://ritter-systems.de/directlink/r/abc123",
    "target_url": "https://example.com/very/long/url",
    "payment_type": "free",
    "is_paid": false
  }
}

📦 Quotas (Admin 15.09.2026)

New links are rejected once the quota is exhausted (HTTP 429). Only active links are counted — expired links do not consume quota. Expired links are deactivated daily and marked as "expired" in the overview (no data loss).

📊 Statistics

Fetch general statistics.

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "links": 150,
  "clicks": 2450,
  "users": 42
}

📋 Fetch my links

Fetch all links of the logged-in user.

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "links": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "short_code": "abc123",
      "target_url": "https://example.com",
      "click_count": 42,
      "created_at": "2026-08-27 10:00:00"
    }
  ]
}

📈 Fetch quota (usage.php)

Active links vs. the quota of your own plan.

Response (success)

{
  "success": true,
  "plan": "guest",
  "usage": { "active": 3, "limit": 10, "remaining": 7 },
  "pricing": { ... }
}

🗑️ Delete link (delete.php) — once, soft delete

Request body

{ "code": "abc123" }

Marks the link as "deleted" once (is_deleted): no longer shown in the dashboard, no more redirects, data stays in the database (billing-relevant history).

🔍 Check target validity (check-links.php)

Request body

{ "code": "abc123" }    // optional — without code: all own links

Checks every target via HTTP (HEAD, fallback GET, 12 s timeout) and sets last_check/check_status/fail_count. Status: ok (2xx/3xx), invalid (404/410), unreachable (timeout/DNS).

Daily job (05:15): checks all active links, deactivates expired ones, automatically deletes links that failed 3 times in a row.

⚠️ Error codes