Broken External Links Checker
Audits a site for broken outbound links and guides fixing or removing them
- Repository
- thedaviddias/Front-End-Checklist
- Stars
- 74,632
- Licence
- MIT
- Files
- 2 files
What it does
This skill gives an AI agent a checklist for finding external links on a web page that return error codes (4xx or 5xx) and fixing them by updating the URL or removing the link. It also explains why broken links hurt user trust and search visibility, and asks the agent to verify the rendered HTML and HTTP responses rather than trusting source files alone. The provided text is mostly guidance; the detailed implementation lives in a referenced rule file that was not included in the review.
Great for
- Web developers who want an assistant to review a site's outbound links before launch
- SEO or content teams auditing older pages for link rot
- People maintaining a blog or documentation site with many external references
Skip it if
- Automatically crawling large sites at scale, since the skill itself contains no crawler script and the agent would need to build one (scanning many URLs can be slow and may be rate-limited or blocked)
- Situations needing a guaranteed complete audit, because the agent may miss links loaded by JavaScript or behind logins
- Sites where you lack permission to send many requests to third-party servers
Try asking
- “Check the outbound links on this page and tell me which ones return 404 or 500 errors.”
- “Review our blog templates and flag where broken external links would appear in the rendered HTML.”
- “Suggest replacements or removals for the dead external links in this article.”
Install in 3 steps
- 1
Download the skill
The ZIP contains the 2 original files, the MIT licence and an attribution note.
broken-external-links.zip - 2
Add it to your agent
Claude Code (all projects)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip broken-external-links.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)
mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip broken-external-links.zip -d .claude/skills/Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.
- 3
Ask for the task
No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.
Get better results
- Give the agent the exact URL or page source so it can verify links against live HTTP responses.
- Ask for a list of flagged links with status codes so you can review each fix before applying it.
- Note that some sites block automated requests and return false errors; confirm important results manually in a browser.
What's inside
- references/rule.md
- SKILL.md
Redistributed unmodified from thedaviddias/Front-End-Checklist under the MIT licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.