Link Validation Skill

Comprehensive link checking and validation for documentation.

Capabilities

• Internal link validation (cross-references)
• External URL checking with retry logic
• Anchor/fragment validation
• Redirect detection and updating
• Link rot monitoring and reporting
• Archive.org fallback suggestions
• sitemap.xml validation
• Link accessibility checking

Usage

Invoke this skill when you need to:

• Validate all links in documentation
• Check for broken external URLs
• Verify anchor references
• Detect and fix redirects
• Monitor link health over time

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
inputPath	string	Yes	Path to documentation directory
action	string	Yes	validate, monitor, fix-redirects
checkExternal	boolean	No	Check external URLs (default: true)
timeout	number	No	Request timeout in seconds
retries	number	No	Retry count for failed requests
allowedDomains	array	No	Domains to always allow
blockedDomains	array	No	Domains to skip checking

Input Example

{
  "inputPath": "./docs",
  "action": "validate",
  "checkExternal": true,
  "timeout": 30,
  "retries": 3
}

Output Structure

Validation Report

{
  "summary": {
    "total": 342,
    "valid": 325,
    "broken": 12,
    "redirected": 5,
    "skipped": 0
  },
  "internal": {
    "total": 180,
    "valid": 178,
    "broken": 2
  },
  "external": {
    "total": 162,
    "valid": 147,
    "broken": 10,
    "redirected": 5
  },
  "issues": [
    {
      "type": "broken",
      "url": "https://api.example.com/v1/docs",
      "status": 404,
      "source": {
        "file": "docs/api/authentication.md",
        "line": 42,
        "text": "[API Documentation](https://api.example.com/v1/docs)"
      },
      "suggestion": {
        "archived": "https://web.archive.org/web/20250101/https://api.example.com/v1/docs",
        "alternative": null
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "redirect",
      "url": "http://example.com/old-page",
      "redirectTo": "https://example.com/new-page",
      "status": 301,
      "source": {
        "file": "docs/guides/migration.md",
        "line": 15
      },
      "suggestion": "Update to: https://example.com/new-page"
    },
    {
      "type": "anchor-missing",
      "url": "api/users.md#create-user",
      "source": {
        "file": "docs/quickstart.md",
        "line": 28
      },
      "suggestion": "Heading 'create-user' not found. Available: create, update, delete"
    }
  ],
  "performance": {
    "duration": 45.2,
    "requestsMade": 162,
    "avgResponseTime": 245
  }
}

Configuration

linkcheck.config.json

{
  "input": "./docs",
  "output": "./reports/linkcheck.json",
  "options": {
    "checkExternal": true,
    "checkAnchors": true,
    "checkImages": true,
    "followRedirects": true,
    "timeout": 30000,
    "retries": 3,
    "retryDelay": 1000,
    "concurrency": 10,
    "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 LinkChecker/1.0"
  },
  "allowed": {
    "statusCodes": [200, 201, 204],
    "domains": ["localhost", "127.0.0.1"],
    "patterns": ["^https://internal\\.example\\.com"]
  },
  "blocked": {
    "domains": ["archive.org"],
    "patterns": ["^https://twitter\\.com"]
  },
  "replacements": {
    "http://example.com": "https://example.com",
    "/docs/v1/": "/docs/v2/"
  }
}

Link Types

Internal Links

<!-- Relative path links -->
[Getting Started](./getting-started.md)
[API Reference](../api/index.md)

<!-- Anchor links -->
[Configuration](#configuration)
[API Users](./api/users.md#create-user)

<!-- Image links -->
![Architecture](./images/architecture.png)

External Links

<!-- Standard external links -->
[GitHub](https://github.com)
[Documentation](https://docs.example.com/guide)

<!-- Links with anchors -->
[MDN Array](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array#instance_methods)

Validation Rules

Internal Link Rules

const internalRules = {
  // File must exist
  fileExists: {
    severity: 'error',
    check: (link, context) => {
      const resolvedPath = resolvePath(link, context.file);
      return fs.existsSync(resolvedPath);
    }
  },

  // Anchor must exist in target file
  anchorExists: {
    severity: 'error',
    check: (link, context) => {
      const [file, anchor] = link.split('#');
      if (!anchor) return true;
      const headings = extractHeadings(file);
      return headings.some(h => slugify(h) === anchor);
    }
  },

  // Case sensitivity
  caseSensitive: {
    severity: 'warning',
    check: (link, context) => {
      const actual = findActualPath(link);
      return link === actual;
    }
  }
};

External Link Rules

const externalRules = {
  // URL must return success status
  statusOk: {
    severity: 'error',
    check: async (url) => {
      const response = await fetch(url, { method: 'HEAD' });
      return response.ok;
    }
  },

  // HTTPS preferred
  httpsPreferred: {
    severity: 'warning',
    check: (url) => {
      return url.startsWith('https://') || isLocalhost(url);
    }
  },

  // No redirects (or update to final URL)
  noRedirects: {
    severity: 'info',
    check: async (url) => {
      const response = await fetch(url, { redirect: 'manual' });
      return !response.headers.get('location');
    }
  }
};

Link Rot Monitoring

Scheduled Checks

# .github/workflows/link-check.yml
name: Link Check

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * 0'  # Weekly on Sunday
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  check-links:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Check links
        uses: lycheeverse/lychee-action@v1
        with:
          args: --verbose --no-progress './docs/**/*.md'
          fail: true

      - name: Create issue on failure
        if: failure()
        uses: actions/github-script@v7
        with:
          script: |
            github.rest.issues.create({
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              title: 'Broken links detected',
              body: 'Weekly link check found broken links. See workflow run for details.',
              labels: ['documentation', 'bug']
            })

Historical Tracking

{
  "history": [
    {
      "date": "2026-01-24",
      "total": 342,
      "broken": 12,
      "new_broken": 3,
      "fixed": 1
    },
    {
      "date": "2026-01-17",
      "total": 340,
      "broken": 10,
      "new_broken": 2,
      "fixed": 0
    }
  ],
  "trends": {
    "avg_broken_per_week": 2.5,
    "most_problematic_domains": [
      { "domain": "api.example.com", "broken_count": 5 },
      { "domain": "old-docs.example.com", "broken_count": 3 }
    ]
  }
}

Archive.org Integration

Fallback Suggestions

async function findArchiveUrl(brokenUrl) {
  const archiveApi = `https://archive.org/wayback/available?url=${encodeURIComponent(brokenUrl)}`;

  try {
    const response = await fetch(archiveApi);
    const data = await response.json();

    if (data.archived_snapshots?.closest) {
      return {
        available: true,
        url: data.archived_snapshots.closest.url,
        timestamp: data.archived_snapshots.closest.timestamp
      };
    }
  } catch (error) {
    // Archive.org unavailable
  }

  return { available: false };
}

Sitemap Validation

sitemap.xml Check

async function validateSitemap(sitemapUrl) {
  const response = await fetch(sitemapUrl);
  const xml = await response.text();
  const urls = parseSitemapXml(xml);

  const results = await Promise.all(
    urls.map(async (url) => {
      const check = await checkUrl(url.loc);
      return {
        url: url.loc,
        lastmod: url.lastmod,
        status: check.status,
        valid: check.valid
      };
    })
  );

  return {
    total: urls.length,
    valid: results.filter(r => r.valid).length,
    invalid: results.filter(r => !r.valid),
    missingLastmod: results.filter(r => !r.lastmod).length
  };
}

Workflow

1. Scan files - Find all Markdown files
2. Extract links - Parse internal and external links
3. Validate internal - Check file and anchor existence
4. Validate external - HTTP requests with retries
5. Check anchors - Verify fragment identifiers
6. Detect redirects - Note permanent redirects
7. Generate report - Output findings and suggestions

Dependencies

{
  "devDependencies": {
    "linkinator": "^6.0.0",
    "markdown-link-check": "^3.11.0",
    "lychee": "^0.14.0",
    "node-fetch": "^3.3.0"
  }
}

CLI Commands

# Check all links
npx linkinator ./docs --recurse --format json > report.json

# Check with markdown-link-check
find docs -name '*.md' -exec npx markdown-link-check {} \;

# Use lychee (Rust-based, fast)
lychee './docs/**/*.md' --format json --output report.json

# Fix redirects automatically
node scripts/fix-redirects.js --input docs/ --report report.json

Best Practices Applied

• Run link checks in CI/CD
• Monitor external links weekly
• Update redirected links promptly
• Use relative links for internal references
• Include archive.org fallbacks for important links
• Allowlist known-good domains

References

• linkinator: https://github.com/JustinBeckwith/linkinator
• lychee: https://github.com/lycheeverse/lychee
• markdown-link-check: https://github.com/tcort/markdown-link-check
• Archive.org Wayback API: https://archive.org/help/wayback_api.php

Target Processes

• docs-testing.js
• docs-audit.js
• docs-pr-workflow.js