From 0a39a7a981f619ac64fdeb26294c7cfd4f110a1a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Joe Mou <dev@mou.fo>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2026 11:39:01 -0400
Subject: Redirect to GitHub with a meta refresh

A browser extension redirects github.com to cgithub with declarative net
requests. Its rules match our HTTP redirects back to github.com too, so
those bounce straight back here and loop forever. A meta refresh makes
cgithub the initiator origin instead, which the extension's rules can
exclude, and its delay leaves a page the user can stop on.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 README.md          | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 package.json       |  6 ++++--
 src/app.test.ts    | 50 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/app.ts         | 35 +++++++++++++++++++++--------------
 views/redirect.eta | 14 ++++++++++++++
 5 files changed, 119 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 src/app.test.ts
 create mode 100644 views/redirect.eta

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3bcf017..a625116 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -24,6 +24,36 @@ $ pnpm run deploy
 
 The worker name and other settings live in `wrangler.jsonc`.
 
+## Browser extension redirects
+
+Pages cgithub can't render (marketing pages, code search, anything unrouted) are
+redirected back to github.com. A browser extension that rewrites github.com URLs
+to a cgithub instance with `declarativeNetRequest` will match those redirects
+too and send the request straight back, looping forever.
+
+To avoid this, cgithub never answers with an HTTP redirect: it serves a small
+page that navigates to github.com with a two-second `<meta http-equiv="refresh">`.
+Because that navigation is initiated by the cgithub origin, the extension can
+let it through with `excludedInitiatorDomains`; without that, the user at least
+lands on a page they can stop on, with a link, instead of an endless loop.
+
+A rule that redirects to a cgithub instance should therefore look like this:
+
+```jsonc
+{
+  "action": {
+    "type": "redirect",
+    "redirect": { "transform": { "host": "cgithub.example" } },
+  },
+  "condition": {
+    "urlFilter": "||github.com",
+    "resourceTypes": ["main_frame"],
+    // So cgithub's own meta refresh to github.com isn't redirected back here.
+    "excludedInitiatorDomains": ["cgithub.example"],
+  },
+}
+```
+
 ## Disclosures
 
 AI coding assistants, in particular Claude, are used in the development process.
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 7673612..ce25701 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
   "scripts": {
     "dev": "node scripts/build.ts && wrangler dev",
     "deploy": "node scripts/build.ts && wrangler deploy",
-    "test": "node --test --test-concurrency=4 src/scraper.test.ts"
+    "test": "node --test --test-concurrency=4 src/app.test.ts src/scraper.test.ts"
   },
   "dependencies": {
     "css-select": "^6.0.0",
@@ -18,7 +18,9 @@
     "htmlparser2": "^10.1.0"
   },
   "pnpm": {
-    "onlyBuiltDependencies": ["workerd"]
+    "onlyBuiltDependencies": [
+      "workerd"
+    ]
   },
   "devDependencies": {
     "@types/node": "^22.10.2",
diff --git a/src/app.test.ts b/src/app.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..498d8a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/app.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+import assert from "node:assert";
+import path from "node:path";
+import { describe, it } from "node:test";
+import { Eta } from "eta";
+import { createApp } from "./app.ts";
+
+// The routes exercised here redirect without scraping, so no network is needed.
+const eta = new Eta({ views: path.join(import.meta.dirname, "..", "views") });
+const app = createApp(eta);
+
+describe("redirects to GitHub", () => {
+  // An HTTP redirect would be caught by the extension's declarativeNetRequest
+  // rules and bounced straight back here.
+  it("should redirect unknown paths with a meta refresh", async () => {
+    const res = await app.request("http://cgithub.example/a/b/c?x=1");
+
+    assert.strictEqual(res.status, 200);
+    assert.strictEqual(res.headers.get("location"), null);
+    assert.strictEqual(res.headers.get("Referrer-Policy"), "no-referrer");
+
+    const body = await res.text();
+    assert.match(
+      body,
+      /<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="2; url=https:\/\/github.com\/a\/b\/c\?x=1">/,
+    );
+    assert.doesNotMatch(body, /<script/);
+  });
+
+  it("should redirect unhandled search types", async () => {
+    const res = await app.request(
+      "http://cgithub.example/actions/deploy-pages/search?q=x&type=code",
+    );
+
+    assert.strictEqual(res.status, 200);
+    assert.match(
+      await res.text(),
+      /https:\/\/github.com\/actions\/deploy-pages\/search\?q=x&amp;type=code/,
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("should redirect raw file requests to raw.githubusercontent.com", async () => {
+    const res = await app.request("http://cgithub.example/actions/deploy-pages/raw/main/README.md");
+
+    assert.strictEqual(res.status, 200);
+    assert.match(
+      await res.text(),
+      /url=https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com\/actions\/deploy-pages\/main\/README.md"/,
+    );
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/app.ts b/src/app.ts
index 0218918..9a7ee8e 100644
--- a/src/app.ts
+++ b/src/app.ts
@@ -19,9 +19,22 @@ import {
   RedirectError,
 } from "./scraper.ts";
 
+// Our URLs mirror GitHub's, so the same path there is the page we scraped.
+function githubUrlFor(c: Context) {
+  const { pathname, search } = new URL(c.req.url);
+  return `https://github.com${pathname}${search}`;
+}
+
 export function createApp(eta: Eta) {
   const app = new Hono();
 
+  // Use a meta refresh to avoid redirect loops in certain situations; we become
+  // the initiator origin even if we are the target of a redirection.
+  function redirectToGitHub(c: Context, location: string) {
+    c.header("Referrer-Policy", "no-referrer");
+    return c.html(eta.render("redirect.eta", { location }));
+  }
+
   app.get("/", async (c) => {
     return c.html(eta.render("home.eta", {}));
   });
@@ -33,7 +46,7 @@ export function createApp(eta: Eta) {
     } catch (e) {
       if (e instanceof RedirectError) {
         if (e.location.startsWith("https://")) {
-          c.header("Referrer-Policy", "no-referrer");
+          return redirectToGitHub(c, e.location);
         }
         return c.redirect(e.location);
       } else if (e instanceof GitHubHTTPError) {
@@ -45,10 +58,7 @@ export function createApp(eta: Eta) {
         return c.html(eta.render("error.eta", { message: "" + e }));
       }
     }
-    // Our URLs mirror GitHub's, so the page we scraped is the same path there.
-    const { pathname, search } = new URL(c.req.url);
-    const githubUrl = `https://github.com${pathname}${search}`;
-    return c.html(eta.render(template, { ...data, githubUrl, commit }));
+    return c.html(eta.render(template, { ...data, githubUrl: githubUrlFor(c), commit }));
   }
 
   // For fragments fetched asynchronously by client-side JS (see public/static/refs.js):
@@ -96,8 +106,10 @@ export function createApp(eta: Eta) {
 
   app.get("/:owner/:repo/raw/:branch/:path{.*}", async (c) => {
     const { owner, repo, branch, path } = c.req.param();
-    c.header("Referrer-Policy", "no-referrer");
-    return c.redirect(`https://raw.githubusercontent.com/${owner}/${repo}/${branch}/${path}`);
+    return redirectToGitHub(
+      c,
+      `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/${owner}/${repo}/${branch}/${path}`,
+    );
   });
 
   app.get("/:owner/:repo/issues", async (c) => {
@@ -131,10 +143,7 @@ export function createApp(eta: Eta) {
     }
 
     // Redirect unhandled search types (like code, which requires sign in anyway).
-    c.header("Referrer-Policy", "no-referrer");
-    return c.redirect(
-      `https://github.com/${owner}/${repo}/search?${new URLSearchParams(c.req.query()).toString()}`,
-    );
+    return redirectToGitHub(c, githubUrlFor(c));
   });
 
   app.get("/:owner/:repo/commits/:branch/:path{.*}?", async (c) => {
@@ -179,9 +188,7 @@ export function createApp(eta: Eta) {
   });
 
   app.all("*", async (c) => {
-    const path = c.req.path;
-    c.header("Referrer-Policy", "no-referrer");
-    return c.redirect(`https://github.com${path}`);
+    return redirectToGitHub(c, githubUrlFor(c));
   });
 
   return app;
diff --git a/views/redirect.eta b/views/redirect.eta
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..393a527
--- /dev/null
+++ b/views/redirect.eta
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+  <meta charset="UTF-8">
+  <meta name="referrer" content="no-referrer">
+  <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1; url=<%= it.location %>">
+  <title>Redirecting to GitHub</title>
+  <link rel="stylesheet" href="/static/style.css">
+</head>
+<body>
+  <p>cgithub can't render this page. Redirecting to
+  <a href="<%= it.location %>" rel="noreferrer"><%= it.location %></a>…</p>
+</body>
+</html>
-- 
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