Generate .htaccess redirect rules for 301 and 302 redirects

Provide each old path with its destination, choose a permanent 301 or temporary 302 response, and receive exact RewriteRule lines plus a combined .htaccess block. The generator escapes source paths safely, supports local destinations and absolute HTTP or HTTPS URLs, preserves the order you supplied, and reports incomplete pairs before they become broken redirects.

Prepare a clear redirect list

Start with one row for every address that should move. The generate .htaccess redirect rules tool expects a source in the from field and a destination in the to field. A source must be a root-relative path beginning with a slash, such as /old-products/widget. Leave query strings and fragments out of the source because Apache RewriteRule matches the URL path, not those components. A destination can be another root-relative path on the same site or a complete HTTP or HTTPS URL when the visitor must move to another host. Enter percent-encoded characters when a URL needs them instead of literal spaces. Keep the rows in the order you want Apache to evaluate them. Although these generated rules match complete paths and therefore avoid many broad-pattern conflicts, a deliberate order still makes the final configuration easier to inspect, maintain, and compare with a migration spreadsheet. Every row is validated, and an omitted from or to value stops generation with a message identifying the incomplete pair.

Choose permanent or temporary behavior

Select 301 when the move is intended to be permanent and search engines, browsers, and downstream systems should learn the replacement address. Select 302 when the change is temporary, for example during a short campaign, maintenance window, or controlled test. The chosen status applies consistently to every pair in one request, which prevents a mixed spreadsheet from silently producing different behavior than expected. Each output line uses an anchored source pattern, a validated destination, and Apache flags in the form R=301,L or R=302,L. Anchors make the source an exact path match rather than a loose substring match, while L tells the current rewrite pass to stop after that rule succeeds. The generator also escapes regular-expression punctuation in the source, so a dot or pair of parentheses in a literal path does not accidentally match unrelated addresses. Review whether your server is configured to read .htaccess files and whether mod_rewrite is enabled; this tool creates directives but cannot inspect or change the Apache installation.

Install and verify the generated block

Copy the htaccess value into the appropriate .htaccess file inside the site scope where the source paths are handled. The result contains only RewriteRule lines, so an existing configuration may already provide RewriteEngine On; add that directive separately if your file does not enable rewriting. Back up the current configuration before editing it, then test the file in a staging environment when possible. Request every old URL and confirm the response status, Location header, final page, and absence of an unexpected redirect chain. Also test a nearby URL that should not redirect, because exact negative checks catch configuration interactions that a successful destination test cannot reveal. Local Apache rules can be affected by directives above or below the inserted block, virtual-host settings, proxy layers, and content-management-system rewrites. For automation, the API returns both an array of individual rules and a newline-joined block. One request costs $0.002; the same deterministic generator can also run in the browser for quick one-off migrations without sending the list elsewhere.