Z101-broken-links — Link Integrity
Z-Code: Z101 LINK_BROKEN · Engine: standalone · Exit: 1
The Fixture
The fixture lives at examples/z101-broken-links/ in the Zenzic repository.
The source document is docs/index.md, which contains two links pointing to files
that do not exist on disk:
| Line | Link | Target | Exists? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | [Getting Started](missing.md) | missing.md | ✘ |
| 8 | [Setup Guide](guide/setup.md) | guide/setup.md | ✘ |
Neither missing.md nor the guide/ subdirectory exists in the fixture.
Both links are therefore broken. Zenzic fires Z101 for each one.
docs_dir = "docs"
fail_under = 0
[build_context]
engine = "standalone"
Running the Example
# Clone the Zenzic repository — no install required
cd examples/z101-broken-links
uvx zenzic check links
Expected output:
standalone - 1 file (1 docs, 0 assets) - 0.0s - 65 files/s
docs/index.md:11:2 x [Z104] 'missing.md' not found in docs
9 │ ## Broken References
10 │
11 ❱ - [Getting Started](missing.md) — this file does not exist → **Z101**
│ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
12 │ - [Setup Guide](guide/setup.md) — this directory does not exist →
**Z101**
13 │
docs/index.md:12:2 x [Z104] 'guide/setup.md' not found in docs
10 │
11 │ - [Getting Started](missing.md) — this file does not exist → **Z101**
12 ❱ - [Setup Guide](guide/setup.md) — this directory does not exist →
**Z101**
│ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
13 │
14 │ ## What Zenzic Reports
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Summary: x 2 errors ! 0 warnings i 0 info - 1 file with findings
FAILED: Hard errors detected. Exit code 1 is mandatory.
Refer to https://zenzic.dev/docs/reference/finding-codes for remediation · Try
'zenzic check --help' for options.
[ Suppression Audit: 0/30 (inline: 0, per-file: 0)
Exit code: 1
Interpreting the Output
The Z101 finding indicates a LINK_BROKEN issue.
This error or warning is raised by Zenzic when a reference link points to a target page or route that exists in the workspace filesystem or routing tree, but is broken because the specific path is incorrect or the target file does not map to any valid route in the Virtual Site Map. In this specific example:
- Scan Type:
Link Validator - Severity:
Error - Impact: Broken links severely degrade the user experience and reduce the Documentation Quality Score (DQS) by deducting a penalty of 8.0 points.
Resolve the Issue
Exit code 1 is triggered in CI pipeline gates when broken links are detected to prevent deployment of dead references. Remediation requires creating the missing destination file or correcting the target path inside the markdown source file.
See Also
- z102 — Anchor Missing — the fragment-level variant of link integrity: the target file exists, but the heading anchor does not.
- z103 — Orphan Link — link targets that exist on disk but are absent from the site navigation (zensical engine required).
- Checks Reference — Z101 — full rule specification.