A permanent link for a thing on a shelf
The bridge between the physical and the digital world.
A ref is a short, public, permanent URL. Print it as a QR sticker or write it to an NFC tag, put it on the thing, and point it wherever the thing lives online today. When that changes, change the ref. What you printed keeps working.
Sign in with Google · 5 free refs No card, no plan to pick. Five refs are yours to keep.
Anything can become a token
A sticker on a CD or a record sleeve, and the album plays when you tap it. A tag inside a box of photos that opens the scanned album. A label on the toolbox that opens the manual. A spine on the bookshelf for a book you only own as a file, or for a game: a ref can point at steam://run/… and the box on the shelf launches it on the PC. The object is already there; the ref makes it tappable.
It points where you say, today
Not to a file, not to a service: to a ref. You decide what shelfref.com/t/k7m2xq4 does. Spotify this year, something better next year, your own server after that. Edit one field, or upload a spreadsheet and move a hundred at once.
Built to outlive the plan
A ref is never deleted and never expires. If you stop paying, you lose the ability to edit, not the redirect: the thing on your shelf keeps working with its last target. Export everything as CSV at any time.
Use cases
The thing is already on the shelf. A ref makes it tappable. A few of the ways people use them:
Books you own as files
A small box with a spine stands in for the ebook. Scan it and the book opens on your reader, from your own server or a store. Move the library, keep the spine.
Records, CDs, tapes
A sticker on the sleeve plays the album on Spotify, YouTube Music, Bandcamp, or a Plex server. When you leave a service, the sleeve follows you to the next.
Games
A box on the shelf for a game you only own digitally. The ref points at steam://run/440 and the PC launches it. Console store pages work the same way.
Board games and puzzles
Inside the lid: the rules PDF, a how-to-play video, your house rules, the scoring sheet. A card with three links covers it.
Tools and appliances
A label on the drill or the boiler opens the manual, the spare parts page and the service contact. The next owner of the house gets it too.
Boxes of photos and papers
A tag inside the box opens the scanned album or the shared folder. The physical box stays the index.
Plants, wine, collections
Care notes for each plant, tasting notes and the vintage page for each bottle, a catalogue card for each item in a collection.
Packs you sell
Print refs on your own products or kits before they have an owner. The buyer scans, claims the ref and points it wherever they like.
How it works
- Sign in. Your five refs already exist: five short ids, five QR codes, five empty targets.
- Put them on things. Download a label sheet and print it, or hold your phone to a blank NFC sticker and write the ref to it from the browser.
- Point them. Paste a link next to each one. Or scan a ref that is not set up yet, standing in front of the thing, and type the link right there.
What we promise, in plain words
- 302, not 301. We never tell browsers to remember a target, so retargeting always works, even for people who scanned before.
- Nothing about visitors. No cookies, no analytics, no fingerprinting on public pages. A scan is a redirect and nothing else.
- What we store about you. Your Google id and email, so you can sign in, and your refs: id, label, target. That is the whole database.
- Your ids are yours. Random seven-character ids that nobody can guess or enumerate. Pre-printed packs can be claimed by scanning.
- Leaving is easy. CSV export, always. The redirect semantics are so simple any service can take them over.
Pricing
Free
USD 0
5 refs, yours to keep. Every feature: QR, NFC, label sheets, cards, CSV, API.
Collection
USD 5 / year
200 refs. One plan, renews automatically, cancel any time. Enough for a shelf of books, a wall of records or a games library.
Need more? Each extra block of 200 refs is another USD 5 a year, added to the same plan.
If a plan lapses, nothing on your shelf breaks: every ref keeps redirecting to its last target forever. You only lose editing of the refs beyond the free 5, and get it back when you renew.
Questions? Read the docs or write to hello@shelfref.com.