Polr is here to give your homelab the dash of URL shortening finesse it's been missing. This modern, minimalist open-source project is like the Swiss Army knife for your web URLs. Polr lets you slice 'em down to size, keeping things lightweight, elegant, and entirely under your control. Dive into Polr and you’ll find a project built on the robust backend of PHP and Lumen, using MySQL to keep your data in check. Setting this bad boy up is a walk in the park—clone the repo, tweak a few settings, and boom! You're shortening URLs like a pro. All this from a neat setup walkthrough available right on yoursite.com/setup. Wanna see it in action before jumping the gun? Polr serves up a demo at demo.polr.me—just log in with demo-admin for both the username and password. Easy peasy, right? But hey, Polr isn’t just about trimming down URLs; it gives you branding power too. Craft those neat, memorable links that scream your brand’s name, all while hanging on to your precious data. And if you're into theming, Polr’s got your back with a clean, modern interface that’s a breeze to customize. Developers are gonna love Polr’s solid API, making it a cinch to integrate this URL shortener into your existing workflow. It's robust enough for serious tasks, yet nimble and lightweight so it doesn’t hog resources. Upgrading from older versions? No sweat—Polr offers a guided process. Just backup your data, update with a quick git pull, and run the necessary commands to keep things in tip-top shape. For those who love to extend functionality, Polr’s got browser extensions (like for Safari) and libraries (a slick one in Python named mypolr). And a special shoutout goes to Oregon State University's Open Source Lab for hosting the Polr website and demo, plus lastpark for the fresh icon in their logo. Polr runs on the principles of Semantic Versioning, ensuring smooth updates and clear version changes. It's a GPL-licensed project, so feel free to dive in, tweak it, and share your improvements with the community. So, what’re you waiting for? Hop on over to the Polr GitHub page and set up your own URL shortening maestro today!