SitecoreAI Has No Aliases Redirects — Use Server Transfer Instead

If you came from Sitecore XP, you probably used Aliases: short, friendly paths that resolve to a longer item path without changing what the visitor sees in the address bar. In SitecoreAI / XM Cloud headless, classic aliases aren’t the tool anymore. Authors work with Redirect Maps, and the type that behaves like an alias is Server Transfer.

Alias vs 301 vs Server Transfer

Goal	Use
Old URL permanently moved	301
Temporary move / campaign	302
Short/vanity URL that should stay in the browser while serving another page	Server Transfer

Server Transfer is effectively a rewrite: /careers can serve /company/careers-and-culture while the browser still shows /careers. That’s the alias experience marketing and content teams expect. Official docs describe Server Transfer as keeping the URL the same and avoiding an extra round-trip visible to the client — see Redirect URLs.

How it works in the head app

On each matching request, Content SDK Redirects middleware / proxy loads site redirects (from Experience Edge, or a cache like Vercel Global Config) and, for SERVER_TRANSFER, issues a Next.js rewrite instead of an HTTP redirect. Authors never touch code for one-off vanity paths.

Author steps:

1. In Content Editor, open your site’s Redirect Maps (Settings → Redirects).
2. Add a map entry:
1. Pattern: /careers (or a regex if needed)
2. Target: /company/careers-and-culture
3. Type: Server Transfer
3. Publish the redirect map, then publish the headless site item so Edge / siteInfo picks up the change (a common gotcha called out in Sitecore guidance).
4. Hit https://yoursite.com/careers — content from the long path, URL stays short.

When not to use Server Transfer

• SEO “this page moved forever” → use 301
• External domains → 301/302 to absolute URLs
• Huge redirect lists → watch middleware cost; Accelerate Cookbook recommends keeping content-managed redirects lean and considering platform/static options at scale

Takeaway

SitecoreAI doesn’t give you XP-style Aliases as a separate feature — and you don’t need them. Redirect Map + Server Transfer is the supported, author-friendly way to ship vanity URLs that feel like aliases in a headless Next.js world.