Ferry — Private URL Redirector Autor: hackslashdash

Ferry redirects URLs the moment you load them — natively, privately, and fast.

Set a rule once (for example, twitter.com → nitter.net, or reddit.com → old.reddit.com) and every matching request is rewritten by the browser itself. No JavaScript runs in the request path, and Ferry never sees the URLs you visit.

WHY FERRY

• Private by design. Ferry makes zero network calls and ships no analytics or telemetry. Your rules live only in your browser's local storage and are never sent anywhere.
• Native speed. Redirects run through the browser's declarativeNetRequest engine (Manifest V3). No background script intercepts your traffic.
• Simple rules. Match by wildcard (https://twitter.com/*) or regular expression, capture parts of the URL with * or (…), and reuse them in the redirect ($1, $2, …).
• Instant. Rules apply the moment you save — no reload needed.
• One-click pause. Toggle all redirects off from the toolbar popup without deleting a single rule.
• Import friendly. Bring rules over from other redirector extensions; anything Ferry can't run (base64 / URL-decode transforms) is skipped with a clear notice.

HOW IT WORKS

1. Open Ferry's options page.
2. Add a rule: pick Wildcard or Regex, set the include pattern, and set the redirect URL. Use an Example URL and Test to preview the result before saving.
3. Save. Visit a matching URL and you're redirected instantly.

EXAMPLES

• https://twitter.com/ → https://nitter.net/$1
• https://www.reddit.com/ → https://old.reddit.com/$1
• ^https://www.youtube.com/shorts/(.*)$ → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=$1

NOT SUPPORTED (by design)

Ferry uses pure declarativeNetRequest, which keeps it private and fast but rules out two things:
• Capture-group transforms (base64 / URL decode).
• SPA soft-navigation redirects (in-app history changes). Hard page loads still redirect.

Open source (MIT).