- name
- dead-link-scanner
- description
- Scan websites, markdown files, and HTML files for broken links (dead links). Use when checking a website for 404s, validating links in documentation or README files, auditing link health before a deploy, or finding broken internal/external links. Supports recursive crawling with depth limits, markdown file scanning, and output in text or JSON format.
dead-link-scanner
Find broken links in websites, markdown files, and HTML documents.
Quick Start
# Scan a website for broken links
python3 scripts/dead_link_scanner.py scan https://example.com
# Scan with depth limit (default: 1)
python3 scripts/dead_link_scanner.py scan https://example.com --depth 3
# Scan a local markdown file
python3 scripts/dead_link_scanner.py file README.md
# Scan multiple files
python3 scripts/dead_link_scanner.py file docs/*.md
# JSON output
python3 scripts/dead_link_scanner.py scan https://example.com --json
# Only show broken links
python3 scripts/dead_link_scanner.py scan https://example.com --broken-onlyCommands
scan
Crawl a website and check all links on each page.
python3 scripts/dead_link_scanner.py scan <url> [options]Options:
--depth <n>— Max crawl depth (default: 1, 0 = single page only)--timeout <seconds>— Request timeout (default: 10)--json— Output results as JSON--broken-only— Only show broken links--internal-only— Only check links within the same domain--max-urls <n>— Max URLs to check (default: 200)--delay <seconds>— Delay between requests (default: 0.2)
file
Scan local markdown or HTML files for broken links.
python3 scripts/dead_link_scanner.py file <path>... [options]Options:
--timeout <seconds>— Request timeout (default: 10)--json— Output as JSON--broken-only— Only show broken links
Output
Default text output:
✓ 200 https://example.com/about
✓ 200 https://example.com/blog
✗ 404 https://example.com/old-page (found on: https://example.com)
✗ ERR https://dead-domain.xyz (found on: https://example.com) — ConnectionErrorSummary line:
Checked 42 links: 39 OK, 3 broken