External Links

Marks outbound links with a visual indicator automatically.

Core feature — always active, no configuration required.

What it does

Links pointing to an external origin receive a visual affordance automatically. The affordance is applied by the project's link-override component, which adds an external-link icon to any anchor whose href is an absolute http: or https: URL pointing outside the current site.

What counts as external

A link is treated as external when:

• Its href is an absolute http: or https: URL.

• The origin differs from the current site's origin.

Relative paths and non-HTTP schemes (mailto:, tel:) are always treated as internal and receive no affordance.

Example

Writing a standard markdown link to an external site:

See the [zfb repository](https://github.com/takazudo/zfb) for source.

Renders with an external-link icon after the link text: zfb repository.

Notes

• The visual affordance (icon, color) is defined in the project's link component, not by a configurable externalLinks key. The appearance is controlled by the project's design tokens.

• Attribute merging (e.g. target="_blank", rel="noopener noreferrer") is handled by the link-override component, not in the markdown pipeline.

• See Resolve Links for the companion feature that normalizes internal link targets.