What it does
Crawls the links inside a post, page, or the whole site, checks each URL's response, and separates them into working, redirected, and dead. For each dead link it searches for a plausible live replacement (an archived version, a canonical successor page) and presents both before touching any content.
Install
This skill isn't packaged in an installable registry. It's a plain SKILL.md file you can copy directly. Copy it from the SKILL.md tab and save it at the path for your assistant:
Use it in your AI assistant
Claude Code
.claude/skills/broken-link-finder/ (or ~/.claude/skills/broken-link-finder/ for all projects)
GitHub Copilot (VS Code)
.github/skills/broken-link-finder/
OpenAI Codex
.codex/skills/broken-link-finder/
Cursor
.cursor/skills/broken-link-finder/ (or ~/.cursor/skills/broken-link-finder/ globally)
Compatibility
Any WordPress site. Works best with outbound HTTP access to check link status; on a site with an aggressive firewall or no outbound requests allowed, the user must supply link status instead.
The complete SKILL.md for this skill:
---
name: broken-link-finder
description: Use when a user asks to check for broken links, dead links, or 404s in their WordPress content. Triggers on "broken links", "dead links", "link check", or "404 links".
---
# Broken Link Finder
## When to use
The user wants existing posts or pages checked for outbound links that no longer resolve, so they can be fixed or removed before they hurt user trust or rankings.
## Procedure
1. Extract every outbound link from the target post, page, or content set.
2. Request the HTTP status for each URL and sort them into working, redirected (3xx), and dead (4xx/5xx or unreachable).
3. For each dead link, look for a live replacement, an archived snapshot, the page's likely successor, or a relevant page on the same domain.
4. Present a table of anchor text, original URL, status, and suggested replacement (or "remove" if none exists).
5. On approval, update the links in place, and note if a link was to a competitor or a low-authority domain vs. a source worth keeping.
## Guardrails
- Never auto-swap a dead link for a replacement without user approval, a wrong substitution changes the meaning of the sentence around it.
- If a domain check tool isn't available, say so plainly rather than guessing a link's status from its URL text.