Why is this .htaccess evaluating to 302 redirect instead of internal rewrite?

Question

As an example, I was expecting this

https://example.software/credits

to evaluate to an internal rewrite

https://example.software?mode=credits

Why is it showing up on the browser url-bar as a 302 redirect?

RewriteEngine On
#Put in by the hosting company to enforce https
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} example\.software [NC]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://example.software/$1 [R,L]

#Bunch of domains, not being used yet
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.app$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.app$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.kiwi$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.kiwi$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.nz$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.nz$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.online$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.online$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://example.software/$1 [R=302,L]

#Internal redirects
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.software$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^home$ https://example.software\?mode\=home&%{QUERY_STRING}  [L]
RewriteRule ^contacts$ https://example.software\?mode\=contacts&%{QUERY_STRING}  [L]
RewriteRule ^credits$ https://example.software\?mode\=credits&%{QUERY_STRING}  [L]
RewriteRule ^downloads$ https://example.software\?mode\=downloads&%{QUERY_STRING}  [L]
RewriteRule ^developer$ https://example.software\?mode\=developer&%{QUERY_STRING}  [L]
RewriteRule ^projects$ https://example.software\?mode\=projects&%{QUERY_STRING}  [L]
RewriteRule ^(download)/([^/]+)$ https://example.software?mode=$1&name=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^(code)/([^/]+)$ https://example.software?mode=$1&name=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^(payment)/([^/]+)$ https://example.software?mode=$1&name=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^(donation)/([^/]+)$ https://example.software?mode=payment&name=$2 [L]

Header always set Content-Security-Policy "upgrade-insecure-requests;"
Header append X-Frame-Options: "SAMEORIGIN"
Header append X-Content-Type-Options: "nosniff"

Answer 1

Your rewrite rules use absolute URLs that include the protocol and host name. Internal rewrites only work with relative URLs that have just the path. When mod_rewrite encounters an absolute URL for the target of the rewrite, it uses a redirect.

So instead of

RewriteRule ^home$ https://example.software\?mode\=home&%{QUERY_STRING}  [L]

You should use

RewriteRule ^home$ /\?mode\=home&%{QUERY_STRING}  [L]

There are some other possible problems with that rule. I don't think so much needs to escaped, rather than using a variable to append the query string, you should use the QSA (query string append) flag, and you probably need to rewrite to your index handler. The correct rewrite is probably going to look like:

RewriteRule ^home$ /index.php?mode=home  [QSA,L]