🔗 Live Demo

• Frontend: https://lily-link.vercel.app

• Repository: https://github.com/meheraj786/microservice-url-link-shortener

• System-Design(HLD): https://meherajdev.vercel.app/system-designs/design-url-shortner

🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend (User Interface)

• Framework: Next.js 16 (App Router)

• Styling: Tailwind CSS v4 + HeroUI (formerly NextUI)

• HTTP Client: Axios with automatic JWT token injection via interceptors

• Deployment: Vercel (Production Static Optimization)

Backend (Microservices Core)

• Runtime: Node.js + Express + TypeScript

• ORM: Prisma (v6 & v7)

• Database: Neon PostgreSQL

• user_schema

• url_schema

• Caching: Upstash Redis (Serverless Distributed Cache)

• API Gateway: Dockerized Nginx

• Reverse Proxy

• SSL Handshaking

• Custom CORS Preflight

• Native Rate Limiting (HTTP 429)

Infrastructure & DevOps

• Containerization: Docker

• Optimized Builds: Multi-stage Dockerfiles

• Local Orchestration: Docker Compose

• CI/CD: GitHub Actions

• Deployment Strategy:

• Backend → Render

• Frontend → Vercel

✨ Features

🔐 JWT Authentication

Secure user registration and login handled by the dedicated user-service.

🔗 Logical Foreign Keys

Independent microservices communicate using loose-coupled userId string references without enforcing physical database foreign keys.

⚡ Distributed Caching

URL lookups first query Upstash Redis (O(1)), then fall back to PostgreSQL, significantly reducing database load.

🌐 API Gateway

Single centralized gateway powered by Nginx, hiding downstream services behind one public endpoint.

🛡️ DDoS Protection

Built-in Nginx rate limiting automatically returns HTTP 429 Too Many Requests during excessive traffic.

🚀 Monorepo CI/CD

GitHub Actions deploy only affected applications based on commit prefixes.

📂 Project Structure

lily-link/

│

├── .github/

│   └── workflows/

│       └── ci-cd.yml

│

├── gateway/

│   ├── nginx.conf

│   └── Dockerfile

│

├── services/

│   ├── url-service/

│   │   ├── src/

│   │   └── Dockerfile

│   │

│   └── user-service/

│       ├── src/

│       └── Dockerfile

│

├── frontend/

│

├── docker-compose.yml

│

└── .env.sample

🚀 Local Development

Prerequisites

• Docker

• Docker Compose

• Node.js

• pnpm

1️⃣ Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/meheraj786/microservice-url-link-shortener.git

cd url-shortener

2️⃣ Configure Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root by following the .env.sample template.

3️⃣ Start All Services

docker compose up --build

4️⃣ Verify API Gateway

The Nginx API Gateway runs on Port 80.

Health Check:

curl http://localhost/health

📦 Microservices

⚙️ Architecture Highlights

• Microservice Architecture

• Dockerized Infrastructure

• Shared PostgreSQL with Isolated Schemas

• Distributed Redis Cache

• Centralized API Gateway

• JWT Authentication

• Conditional GitHub Actions CI/CD

• Production Ready Deployment

• Loose Coupling Between Services

🛡️ Security

• JWT Authentication

• Secure Password Hashing

• Nginx Rate Limiting

• Custom CORS Handling

• Reverse Proxy Isolation

• Environment Variable Configuration

🚀 Deployment

👨‍💻 Author

Meheraj Hosen

• GitHub: https://github.com/meheraj786

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.