lnk validate

Validate your redirect configuration before pushing. Runs two levels of checks: syntax validation (always) and live URL reachability (with --live).

$ lnk validate [--live] [--static|--dynamic]

What it checks

Syntax validation (always runs)

• Every line has exactly two or three fields: source destination [code]
• Source paths start with /
• Destination URLs are well-formed (https:// or /relative)
• Status codes are valid HTTP redirect codes: 301, 302, 303, 307, 308
• No duplicate source paths within the same file
• No duplicate source paths across both files (warns, does not fail)
• Comments (#) and blank lines are ignored

Live URL reachability (--live flag)

• Makes an HTTP HEAD request to each destination URL
• Reports non-2xx/3xx responses as warnings
• Reports connection timeouts and DNS failures as errors

Usage

$ lnk validate
Validating static.lnk... 4 rules OK ✓
Validating dynamic.lnk... 2 rules OK ✓
No issues found.

$ lnk validate --live
Validating static.lnk... 4 rules OK ✓
Validating dynamic.lnk... 2 rules OK ✓
Checking 6 destination URLs...
  https://github.com/bhdicaire        200 OK (41ms) ✓
  https://linkedin.com/in/bhdicaire   200 OK (87ms) ✓
  https://blog.example.com            200 OK (53ms) ✓
  https://x.com/bhdicaire             200 OK (62ms) ✓
  https://summit.example.com/2025     404 Not Found  ✗
  https://store.example.com?promo=s…  200 OK (49ms) ✓
Validation complete: 1 error, 0 warnings.

Options

Example: catching errors before they deploy

# Typical pre-push workflow
lnk validate && lnk deploy "update links"

# Full check with live validation
lnk validate --live --fail-on-warning

Common errors

Malformed URL

ERROR static.lnk:12: invalid destination URL "github.com/bhdicaire"
  → Destination URLs must start with https:// or /
  Fix: /github  https://github.com/bhdicaire  301

Invalid status code

ERROR static.lnk:7: invalid redirect status code "200"
  → Valid codes: 301, 302, 303, 307, 308
  Fix: /old  https://new.example.com  301

Duplicate path

ERROR: /github appears in both static.lnk (line 3) and dynamic.lnk (line 1)
  → Cloudflare uses the first match; the second rule will never be reached

Destination not reachable (live only)

WARNING dynamic.lnk:2: https://summit2023.example.com returned 404 Not Found
  → The destination URL exists in your link file but is no longer live
  Consider removing or updating this redirect

# .github/workflows/validate.yml
on: [pull_request]
jobs:
  validate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: make setup && lnk validate --live