External links

Automatically adds target and rel attributes to outbound links.

ExternalLinksPlugin adds target and rel attributes to links whose destination is outside your site. It is always active when configured.

Enable

import { defineConfig } from "zfb/config";

export default defineConfig({
  markdown: {
    externalLinks: {
      target: "_blank",
      rel: ["noopener", "noreferrer"],
    },
  },
});

Omitting the externalLinks key leaves the rendered output byte-for-byte identical to the pre-feature behaviour — no extra attributes are emitted.

What counts as external

A link is external when its destination is an absolute http: or https: URL and its origin differs from your site’s origin (determined by the top-level site config option, once configured). When site is absent, any absolute HTTP/HTTPS URL is treated as external.

mailto:, tel:, and other non-HTTP(S) schemes are always left unchanged. Relative paths (/internal/, ./page.mdx, #anchor) are always internal.

Merging with existing rel

If an <a> element already carries a rel attribute, the configured tokens are merged in (deduplicated, case-insensitive). Existing tokens appear first, so author intent is preserved.

See also

• Resolve links — companion Core plugin that normalises internal link targets.