Link Check

You verify every @file reference in AIWG distributable skills and agents against the full linking contract, producing a structured PASS/WARN/FAIL report per reference. You can run against a single file, a directory, or the full agentic/code/ corpus, and optionally auto-migrate legacy bare refs to the @$AIWG_ROOT/ prefix.

Triggers

"link check" / "check links" → run against current file or directory
"link check agentic/code/" → full corpus scan
"link check --fix" → auto-migrate legacy bare refs
"any bad links?" → run link-check on current context
"check for broken @-refs" → run link-check
"are there any legacy bare refs?" → run link-check, focus on 4b

Usage

/link-check [path] [options]

Argument	Default	Description
path	current file or `agentic/code/`	File or directory to check
--fix	off	Auto-migrate `@agentic/code/`, `@src/`, `@docs/`, `@tools/` → `@$AIWG_ROOT/`
--report	off	Output structured JSON report instead of human-readable
--aiwg-only	off	Check only `.aiwg/` refs (skip bare-core and forbidden checks)
--fail-on-warn	off	Treat WARN as FAIL (useful for CI)

Reference Classification

Each @<path> reference is classified per the AIWG linking contract:

Pattern	Result	Reason
`@$AIWG_ROOT/<path>`	PASS	AIWG core file, install-relative
`@$TOKEN/<path>` — TOKEN set in env	PASS	Registered corpus token
`@$TOKEN/<path>` — TOKEN NOT set	WARN	Unknown token — add to `.env` or export
`@.aiwg/<path>` — in Tier 1/2 allowlist	PASS	Normalized project memory
`@.aiwg/<path>` — not in allowlist	FAIL	Repo-local only — silently fails in user projects
`@.claude/<path>`	FAIL	Deployment target — forbidden in distributable source
`@agentic/code/<path>`	WARN	Legacy bare ref — use `@$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/`
`@src/<path>`	WARN	Legacy bare ref — use `@$AIWG_ROOT/src/`
`@docs/<path>`	WARN	Legacy bare ref — use `@$AIWG_ROOT/docs/`
`@tools/<path>`	WARN	Legacy bare ref — use `@$AIWG_ROOT/tools/`
Relative path within component	PASS	Local ref

Process

Resolve target path — single file, directory, or default agentic/code/
Build normalized allowlist — read all manifest.json files under agentic/code/; collect memory.creates[*].path; add Tier 1 entries
Load environment — check which env vars are set (for @$TOKEN/ classification)
Extract all @<path> refs — regex: @[\$\.]?[a-zA-Z0-9_/.\-]+ in each .md file
Classify each ref per the table above
If --fix: rewrite WARN-classified bare legacy refs in-place:
- @agentic/code/ → @$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/
- @src/ → @$AIWG_ROOT/src/
- @docs/ → @$AIWG_ROOT/docs/
- @tools/ → @$AIWG_ROOT/tools/
Produce report

Output Format

Human-readable (default)

Link Check: agentic/code/addons/aiwg-dev/skills/dev-doctor/SKILL.md

  PASS  $AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/addons/aiwg-dev/rules/addon-boundaries.md
  PASS  .aiwg/AIWG.md (Tier 1, always present)
  WARN  agentic/code/addons/aiwg-dev/rules/skill-placement.md
        → legacy bare ref; use $AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/... prefix
  FAIL  .aiwg/planning/issue-driven-ralph-loop-design.md
        → non-normalized .aiwg/ path (repo-local only)

Result: 2 issues (1 WARN, 1 FAIL)

Corpus summary

When run against a directory:

Link Check: agentic/code/ (corpus-wide)

Files checked:  247
References found: 1,341
  PASS:  1,337
  WARN:      3
  FAIL:      1

Violations:
  WARN  agentic/code/addons/my-addon/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md:42
        agentic/code/... (bare ref) → add $AIWG_ROOT/ prefix
  FAIL  agentic/code/addons/my-addon/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md:89
        .aiwg/planning/my-design.md → non-normalized (repo-local only)

Overall: WARN (3 warnings, 1 failure)
Run with --fix to auto-migrate WARN refs.

JSON report (`--report`)

{
  "target": "agentic/code/",
  "timestamp": "2026-04-01T04:48:00Z",
  "summary": { "files": 247, "refs": 1341, "pass": 1337, "warn": 3, "fail": 1 },
  "violations": [
    {
      "file": "agentic/code/addons/my-addon/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md",
      "line": 42,
      "ref": "agentic/code/addons/aiwg-dev/rules/skill-placement.md",
      "result": "WARN",
      "message": "legacy bare ref — add $AIWG_ROOT/ prefix",
      "fix": "$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/addons/aiwg-dev/rules/skill-placement.md"
    }
  ]
}

Auto-Fix Behavior (`--fix`)

Only WARN-classified legacy bare refs are auto-fixed. FAIL refs (repo-local .aiwg/ paths, .claude/ refs) are never auto-fixed — they require a human decision:

Remove the reference
Replace with a normalized equivalent
Or normalize the path in a manifest's memory.creates

After --fix, report how many refs were migrated and re-run the check to confirm the result.

CI Integration

Use --report --fail-on-warn for CI:

# Fails if any FAIL or WARN refs found
aiwg link-check agentic/code/ --report --fail-on-warn > link-report.json

Exit codes:

0 — all PASS
1 — WARN found (only if --fail-on-warn)
2 — FAIL found

Examples

Check a single skill

User: "check links in the dev-doctor skill"

Action: Run link-check on agentic/code/addons/aiwg-dev/skills/dev-doctor/SKILL.md.

Full corpus check

User: "any bad links in the corpus?"

Action: Run link-check on agentic/code/ and summarize violations.

Auto-fix

User: "link check --fix"

Action: Run link-check on agentic/code/, migrate all bare legacy refs, report how many were fixed.

References

@$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/addons/aiwg-dev/rules/aiwg-dir-reference-contract.md — Full linking contract
@$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/addons/aiwg-dev/skills/validate-component/SKILL.md — Per-component validation
@$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/addons/aiwg-dev/skills/dev-doctor/SKILL.md — Full repo health check