github.com/owner/repo
Most of the time you can find a repo just by assuming what it’s path might be, for example, you know Codex is created by OpenAI, so right now instead of Googling for "codex github" you may just browse to "github.com/openai/codex" and end up in the right place.
Use Case A: Shorter, readable GitHub links
With git-to.dev you can just go to git-to.dev/openai/codex and end up in the right place, with a shorter url.
Use Case B: Fuzzy URL shortening
Instead of putting this URL in a tinyURL to shorten it, and end up with an obscure URL that could end up anywhere, you can also just infer the shortest URL by trying https://git-to.dev/oai/cx, and since the repo with the most stars that most closely matches the unique chars oai/cx is github.com/openai/codex it will automatically redirect there. URL Shortening without a URL shortener.
Use Case C: Preview and find the shortest link
You don’t have to guess and immediately follow a fuzzy URL. On the git-to.dev website, you can enter a candidate path to pre-resolve it, inspect the repository it matches, and see other possible matches before opening anything. You can also paste a full GitHub repository URL into the shortener and have the site work backward to find the shortest git-to.dev URL that still resolves to that exact repository.
How Matching Works
- Owners first. Candidates come from an exact login lookup, GitHub’s user index, and a cached pool of the most-starred owners.
- Whole pairs are scored. Both halves are matched together, so a weaker-looking owner still wins when it holds the tighter repo match.
- Tightest, then shortest. Match quality ranks first, then fewest total characters. Stars only break an exact tie.
- Extra segments pass through. /maaz/ks/tree/main lands on that branch, and ?preview=1 shows the resolution instead of redirecting.
🧪 Technical Details
🔧 A fuzzy resolver built on Next.js and GitHub
The application is built with the Next.js App Router and uses the GitHub REST API to discover possible owners and repositories. It scores the owner and repo as a pair—ranking exact, prefix, substring, and subsequence matches—then redirects to the strongest result while preserving any extra path segments.
The fun part is that the resolver works in both directions: it can expand a fuzzy path such as oai/cx, but it can also search for the shortest path that still resolves unambiguously to a specific repository. Results are cached to reduce GitHub API calls, and adding ?preview=1 lets you inspect a match before following the redirect.
🔮 Future
- Add browser and editor extensions that generate the shortest
git-to.devlink directly from the GitHub page you are viewing. - Support links to issues, pull requests, releases, and files while preserving the same fuzzy owner/repository matching.