HELP CENTRE

How to use Redirectdepth

Everything you need to trace redirect chains, understand the diagnosis, and know what to do with it.


GETTING STARTED

Trace your first URL

  1. Go to the Trace page.
  2. Paste a URL — from your browser bar, a link checker alert, or a chat message. If the URL has no scheme, https:// is prepended automatically.
  3. Click Trace. The tool follows the redirect chain one hop at a time using redirect: 'manual' fetches.
  4. Read the hop cards: each shows the source URL, the redirect status code, the destination, a bullet list of what changed, and a plain-english explanation of whether that hop was necessary or avoidable.
  5. Use the Copy chain button to get a plain-text summary for a ticket or chat message, or Export CSV to save the data.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Why does my site show as "unreachable" when it works fine in a browser?

Redirectdepth runs inside Cloudflare Workers. The Workers runtime cannot open a connection to another host that is also behind Cloudflare. This is a platform constraint, not a bug. DNS resolution, connection attempts, and TLS handshakes all fail at the platform level before the tool can inspect any response.

Workaround: Test with hosts that are not Cloudflare-fronted — for example httpbin.org, wikipedia.org, or example.com. If your production site is behind Cloudflare, consider tracing a preview URL from a non-Cloudflare staging environment.

What does "avoidable" mean?

A hop is labelled avoidable when its change could have been accomplished in the same server rule as the previous hop — for example, an http → https redirect and an apex → www redirect can usually be done in a single 301 response rather than two sequential round trips.

This is a diagnostic label, not a command. Your server configuration may have legitimate reasons for keeping hops separate (e.g. different origin servers, middleware rules, security constraints). The diagnosis tells you what changed; you decide whether to refactor.

Does this tool slow down or change my website?

No. Redirectdepth is a read-only diagnostic tool. It follows the redirect chain by making standard HTTP requests from the Cloudflare Workers runtime — the same way a browser would, but without rendering a page. It never modifies any server configuration, writes rules, or interacts with your server beyond standard HTTP response headers.

The tool also does not measure real user latency — every hop is timed from the Workers runtime, not from a mobile device. The hop count is the diagnosis, not the milliseconds.

How many hops can you follow?

The default limit is 20 hops, matching the limit that most browsers enforce internally. If a chain exceeds 20 hops, the tool reports CHAIN EXCEEDED and shows the hops it was able to follow before the limit. If a loop is detected (the same URL appears more than once), the trace stops immediately and reports LOOP DETECTED.

Can I save or share my traces?

The free tier does not store results server-side — once you navigate away, the trace is gone. You can:

  • Copy chain — a plain-text summary for a ticket, chat message, or email.
  • Export CSV — a structured file with each hop's status, changes, and classification.

Saved trace history and bulk CSV input are planned for the Pro plan but are not yet built.

Why does my URL have more hops than I expected?

Individual redirect steps accumulate fast. Each of these common operations typically adds its own hop:

  • Scheme upgrade (http → https)
  • Apex to www (example.com → www.example.com)
  • Trailing slash normalization (/path → /path/)
  • Path case normalization (/About → /about)
  • Query parameter injection or stripping (?utm_source=...)

Each hop is individually defensible — but the stack of several hops is what costs real round trips. Redirectdepth helps you see the pattern and decide which hops could be collapsed into a single server rule.


LIMITATIONS

Known limitations

This tool is under active development. The following are honest, current limitations — none are bugs you should report, but all are things we plan to improve.

⚡ Cannot reach Cloudflare-fronted hosts

The Cloudflare Workers runtime cannot connect to other Cloudflare-fronted origins. This affects a significant share of the web. See FAQ #1 for the workaround.

⚡ No saved trace history

Results are not stored server-side on the free tier. You must copy or export before navigating away. A saved-history feature is planned for the paid plan but is not yet available.

⚡ No scheduled or automated traces

The tool is manual only — you paste a URL and trace it. There is no cron job, webhook, or API endpoint for automated or scheduled checks. This is planned for the Enterprise plan.

⚡ No email notifications

The infrastructure does not include an email sender. No alerts, digests, or reports can be sent by email. This affects all plans.

⚡ No real payment processor

The pricing page shows planned subscription tiers but no payment provider (Stripe or equivalent) is wired. All subscriptions are a demonstration — no real card is charged. The Free tier works without it.

⚡ Cannot measure real user latency

Every hop is timed from the Workers runtime, not from a real device on a mobile network. The hop count is the diagnosis; milliseconds are directional only.


CONTACT

Get in touch

Redirectdepth is a small tool run by a single operator. We read every message but replies may take a business day.

Send a message

Email us at redirectdepth@agen2ic.ai. Include the URL you traced and what you expected to see — it helps us reproduce the issue.

📬 Before you write: This team handles questions about using Redirectdepth. We cannot help with configuring your Apache, Nginx, or Cloudflare redirect rules — we only show you what your server currently does. If you need help setting up redirects, contact your hosting provider or a DevOps engineer.

What to include for the fastest reply:
The exact URL you traced, a screenshot or copy of the trace results, and a note about what surprised you.

Report a bug: Same email. Describe what you did and what happened. If the tool threw an error, include the exact error message.