NetBox SQIDs¶

Short, URL-safe, globally unique identifiers for every NetBox object.

NetBox SQIDs is a plugin that adds a computed sqid property to every Django model in your NetBox instance. SQIDs encode the content type and primary key into a compact string that can be shared, bookmarked, and resolved back to the original object.

Why SQIDs?¶

NetBox object URLs leak two pieces of information in their default form:

• The app and model (/dcim/devices/, /ipam/prefixes/, ...)
• The integer primary key, which roughly correlates with creation order

That makes URLs verbose and hard to share over chat or in tickets. SQIDs solve both problems in a single short token:

https://netbox.example.com/dcim/devices/4127/        ->  19 chars after host
https://netbox.example.com/s/WK1J/                   ->  6  chars after host

The same token works in the REST API, in scripts, in printed labels, and in any place where pasting a full NetBox URL would be awkward.

How it works¶

1. Every Django model gets a read-only sqid property at startup, attached by the plugin's ready() hook.
2. The property encodes a tuple of (content_type_id, pk) using the sqids algorithm with a custom 33-character alphabet.
3. The redirect view decodes the SQID, looks up the model via Django's ContentType framework, and 302s to the object's detail page.

No tables. No migrations. No middleware. The full plugin is well under 200 lines of Python.

Quick example¶

>>> device = Device.objects.first()
>>> device.sqid
'WK1J'

>>> from netbox_sqids.sqids import resolve_sqid
>>> resolve_sqid('WK1J')
<Device: my-switch>

In the browser, visiting /s/WK1J/ redirects to the device's detail page. In the API, /api/s/WK1J/ redirects to the REST detail endpoint.

Features¶

• Zero-config. Install the plugin and every model gets a .sqid property automatically.
• No migrations. Pure computed properties, no database changes.
• Globally unique. SQIDs are unique across all models, not just within a table.
• URL-safe. Curated 33-character alphabet with no ambiguous characters (no B, I, or O).
• Redirect views. Resolve any SQID to its object via browser or REST API.
• Short URLs. Optional monkey-patched routes like /s/WK1J/ at the root level.

Where to next¶

• New here? Start with Getting Started.
• Looking up daily usage? See Using SQIDs and the Recipes.
• Hitting a problem? Check Troubleshooting or the FAQ.
• Curious about internals? See Architecture and the Encoding deep dive.

Requirements¶

License¶

Apache 2.0