SkipLink

Skip the ads. Land on the real link.

SkipLink is a one-click bypass for ad-driven "shorten-and-earn" URL shorteners (adf.ly, shorte.st, linkvertise, shrinkearn, clk.sh, fc.lc, earn4link.in, and thousands more). Paste a short link, hit Bypass, and get the real destination URL instantly — no ads, no 5-second timers, no clicks, no fake pages.

It works over plain HTTP only: it never renders an ad, never runs an interstitial, and never executes JavaScript. It simply reads the destination that the shortener's own page already contains and follows the redirect chain straight to it.

Features

• One-click GUI (Tkinter) — paste, press Enter, copy or open the final link.
• CLI — resolve one link or a whole file of links, JSON output for scripting.
• Multi-layer resolution — follows unlimited chains of redirects and interstitial pages (a shortener pointing at another shortener keeps resolving).
• Zero dependencies — pure Python standard library. Works even without pip.
• 1,537 known shortener domains bundled for detection.
• Honest about walls — detects Google reCAPTCHA / safelink verification gates and ad-farm "money pages", and tells you so instead of guessing.
• Optional real-browser mode (Playwright) for JS-countdown shorteners and "get link" buttons that only release the destination in a live browser.
• Decodes the usual tricks: meta refresh, location.href, var link, atob(...) base64, unescape(...), skip-button anchors, JSON APIs and plain-text destinations.

Install

Prebuilt app (Windows / macOS / Linux)

Grab the ready-made executables from the Releases page:

Platform	File	Notes
Windows	skiplink-gui.exe	double-click for the app
Windows	skiplink.exe	command line
Linux	skiplink-gui	double-click, or run from a terminal
Linux	skiplink	command line

macOS: build support can be re-enabled (see .github/workflows/build.yml), but the binaries are unsigned (no Apple Developer account), so the first launch would need right-click → Open. Every build is produced automatically by GitHub Actions from the source on every v* tag.

From source

git clone https://github.com/akashmark8-cloud/skiplink.git
cd skiplink
python -m pip install -e .          # optional: gives you the `skiplink` command

Or just run it directly — no install needed:

python main.py "https://adf.ly/AbCdEf"
python gui.py

Optional: browser mode (Playwright)

For hardened shorteners that only reveal the destination when JavaScript runs:

pip install -r requirements-browser.txt
playwright install chromium

Then use --browser / the GUI's "Use browser" checkbox.

Usage

CLI

# resolve one link
python main.py "https://adf.ly/AbCdEf"

# resolve several links at once
python main.py "https://shorte.st/x" "https://tinyurl.com/y"

# resolve a file full of links (one per line, '#' = comment)
python main.py -f links.txt

# open the final link in your browser
python main.py -o "https://bit.ly/xyz"

# copy the final link to the clipboard
python main.py -c "https://is.gd/abc"

# machine-readable output
python main.py -j "https://cutt.ly/uvw" "https://gg.gg/pqr"

# real-browser mode for JS-gated links
python main.py -b "https://ouo.io/xyz"

# version / domain list
python main.py -V
python main.py --list

Example output:

[https://earn4link.in/FLf1Y1] (known shortener)
   1. [embedded ] https://earn4link.in/FLf1Y1  (HTTP 200)
   2. [redirect ] http://open2get.in/FLf1Y1  (HTTP 302)
   3. [redirect ] https://blog.gangstarnewyorkapk.com/myphp.php?id=FLf1Y1&site=e4l  (HTTP 302)
   4. [final    ] https://blog.gangstarnewyorkapk.com/  (HTTP 200)

FINAL: https://blog.gangstarnewyorkapk.com/
NOTE:  Captcha-gated (Google reCAPTCHA / human verification). The final link
       is only released to a human in a real browser; no automated tool can
       bypass it.

GUI

python gui.py

1. Paste your short link into the box (or click Paste from clipboard).
2. Press Enter or click Bypass.
3. The full resolution chain is shown. Click Open final to open it in your browser or Copy final to put it on the clipboard.
4. Tick Use browser (Playwright) for links that need a real browser.

As a library

from skiplink import resolve

result = resolve("https://adf.ly/AbCdEf")
print(result["final"])          # the destination URL
for hop in result["chain"]:
    print(hop["url"], hop["status"], hop["kind"])
if result["note"]:
    print("NOTE:", result["note"])          # e.g. captcha-gated / money page

How it works

1. Send one HTTP request (a real-browser User-Agent, cookies kept across hops) to the short link, without following redirects automatically.
2. If the response is a redirect (301/302/303/307/308), follow the Location header. Repeat.
3. If the response is an interstitial ad page, scan its HTML/JSON for the embedded destination:
   • <meta http-equiv="refresh" ...>
   • window.location / location.href / window.open(...)
   • var link = "..." / var url = "..." style assignments
   • atob("...") and unescape("...") encoded URLs
   • skip/continue button anchors, data-* attributes, iframe src
   • JSON API responses with url / link / destination keys
   • a bare URL in plain-text responses
4. Ignore obvious ad/tracker domains and follow the real destination.
5. Repeat until no further redirect or embedded link is found, then classify the final page: captcha gate, safelink gate, or ad-farm money page — and say so instead of guessing.
6. Browser mode: drive a headless Chromium via Playwright, wait out countdowns, auto-click skip/continue/get-link elements, and read the URL that a human would actually land on.

Project layout

skiplink/
├── main.py               # CLI entry point
├── gui.py                # run the one-click GUI directly
├── launcher.py           # PyInstaller entry point (GUI / CLI in one binary)
├── .github/workflows/build.yml  # builds Windows/macOS/Linux binaries per tag
├── skiplink/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── cli.py            # command line interface
│   ├── core.py           # resolution engine + wall detection (stdlib only)
│   ├── browser.py        # optional Playwright browser mode
│   ├── gui.py            # Tkinter GUI
│   ├── clipboard.py      # copy-to-clipboard helper
│   ├── __main__.py       # python -m skiplink
│   └── data/
│       └── shortener_domains.txt   # 1,537 known shortener domains
├── docs/demo.svg         # overview diagram
├── tests/test_core.py    # unit tests (local HTTP server, no network)
├── requirements.txt      # stdlib only, no installs needed
├── requirements-browser.txt  # optional Playwright extra
├── pyproject.toml
└── LICENSE               # MIT

Tests

python -m unittest discover -s tests -v

The tests spin up a local HTTP server, so they run offline.

Building the app yourself

The released executables are built with PyInstaller by GitHub Actions (see .github/workflows/build.yml) — no cross-compiling needed: each OS builds its own native binary. Locally you can do the same:

pip install pyinstaller
pyinstaller --onefile --windowed --name skiplink-gui \
  --add-data "skiplink/data/shortener_domains.txt:skiplink/data" launcher.py

• launcher.py is a single entry point: no arguments opens the GUI, URL arguments run the CLI.
• To create a new release, push a tag: git tag v1.2.0 && git push origin v1.2.0 — the workflow builds for all four platforms and attaches them to the Release.

License

MIT. See LICENSE. Copyright (c) 2026 akashmark8-cloud.

Disclaimer

This tool resolves short links to their destination. Use it only for legitimate purposes: checking where a link really goes before clicking, security research, link hygiene, and personal convenience. Respect the terms of service of the services you use, and be aware that link-rot means many shortener domains in the bundled list may have changed owners or shut down.