shortid
A Go library for generating super short, fully unique, non-sequential, and URL-friendly IDs at high speed.
What is shortid?
Shortid is a Go package that generates compact, unique, non-sequential identifiers optimized for URL usage. It produces IDs at high speed with guaranteed uniqueness until 2050, solving the need for collision-resistant short identifiers in distributed systems and web applications.
Go developers building web applications, distributed systems, or services requiring URL-friendly unique identifiers without sequential ordering. System architects needing predictable ID generation across multiple concurrent workers.
Developers choose Shortid for its guaranteed uniqueness until 2050 without yearly resets, high performance generating hundreds of thousands of IDs per second, and concurrency-safe design. It provides stable ID length and deterministic algorithm with controlled randomness, unlike pure ports of similar libraries.
Overview
Super short, fully unique, non-sequential and URL friendly Ids
Use Cases
Best For
- Generating URL-friendly unique identifiers for web applications and APIs
- Distributed systems requiring non-sequential, collision-resistant IDs across multiple workers
- High-throughput applications needing hundreds of thousands of unique IDs per second
- Concurrent Go applications where thread-safe ID generation is essential
- Systems requiring predictable ID length (typically 9 symbols) with minimal overhead
- Applications needing unique identifiers without external dependencies or database sequences
Not Ideal For
- Systems requiring IDs to be sortable by creation time or sequential order, as Shortid generates non-sequential IDs
- Applications needing cryptographically secure randomness for security-sensitive token generation
- Projects with a lifespan extending beyond 2050 that require guaranteed uniqueness indefinitely
- Environments where compatibility with standard UUID formats is essential for interoperability
Pros & Cons
Pros
Generates hundreds of thousands of IDs per second with minimal overhead, making it ideal for high-throughput applications as stated in the README.
Ensures no collisions until 2050 without yearly resets, using a deterministic algorithm with worker IDs, as highlighted in the implementation details.
By default produces IDs with a URL-safe alphabet, avoiding special characters for easy integration into web applications and APIs.
Designed for safe use in concurrent Go environments without data races, with tests included to confirm thread-safety.
Cons
Only guarantees uniqueness until 2050, which may not suffice for long-term projects or systems with indefinite timelines, requiring future migration.
Uses a proprietary ID schema (e.g., 9 symbols with specific encoding) not compatible with UUID standards, potentially causing interoperability issues with existing systems.
For optimal performance and uniqueness, requires initialization and management of worker IDs (up to 32), adding setup complexity compared to simpler, drop-in ID generators.
Frequently Asked Questions
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