In simple English
This tool checks every web link inside your documentation and notes. It finds broken pages before your readers click on them. You can run it on your own computer or set it up to check files automatically. It costs nothing to use and takes a few seconds to run. The licence lets you use it freely without paying.
What it is
A command-line utility and library written in JavaScript that extracts hyperlinks from Markdown files and tests them against the live web. It reports which links work, which return error codes, and which are offline.
What it is good for
Solo builders who write documentation in Markdown and want an automated way to catch broken links before publishing.
- Runs quickly on a single file or an entire folder of notes.
- Integrates into continuous integration pipelines and pre-commit hooks.
- Supports custom headers, ignored patterns, and regular expression replacements.
- Requires Node.js installed on your computer to run locally.
- Can produce false alarms if target websites block automated request checkers.
- Large documentation sets with many links can take several minutes to verify.
Checking links by hand by clicking on every URL in your documents.
Pre-commit hooks or GitHub Actions for automated documentation checks.
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npm install -g markdown-link-check markdown-link-check ./README.md