Verify Blocked Documentation Links With Public Probes

[PSchmiedmayer]

♻️ Current situation & Problem

The documentation checks in Grove #119 encounter HTTP 403 responses from Bluetooth and Zenodo, even though those pages are reachable from other networks. Ignoring the URLs would also hide future broken links.

⚙️ Release Notes

• Run Linkspector once and retain its structured results. Only HTTP 403 findings on explicitly configured public hosts receive a second check through Globalping; no account or API key is needed.
• Require two successful responses with verified TLS to resolve a finding. Confirmed 404/410 results remain failures. Blocked or inconclusive measurements remain visible as unverified warnings, not successful verification. Other Linkspector errors retain their existing behavior.
• Add globalping_hosts to the Markdown Links and Repository Standards workflows. The fallback is disabled by default. For example: globalping_hosts: 'www.bluetooth.com,zenodo.org'.
• Keep the shared workflow and its action at the same revision through self-repository references. Existing callers need an updated workflow release before enabling the new input.
• Use major-version action tags and the latest Linkspector 0.5.x release. Use the runner's installed Chrome and its sandbox configuration rather than downloading a separate browser build.

📚 Documentation

The README documents configuration, limits, outcomes, and the live regression checks. Globalping measurements are public: only opt-in public documentation hosts are eligible, and URLs containing credentials, query strings, fragments, or nonstandard ports are not submitted. Reports are retained for seven days; findings use workflow annotations rather than PR comments.

✅ Testing

• 16 local unit tests passed, including outages, quotas, invalid reports, TLS failures, deduplication, and preservation of other link errors.
• Executed the shared action's shell locally with Linkspector 0.5.6. Bluetooth's initial 403 was verified through Globalping; a valid local document passed and the deliberately missing document still failed.
• Explicitly exercised the live fallback for both Bluetooth and Zenodo; both returned successful responses with verified TLS from two probes.
• Added a permanent GitHub check on every PR, pushes to main, and weekly. It runs the shared action against the four fixtures, asserts the expected broken-link failure, and separately requires verified live results for both public URLs. Inconclusive measurements fail this regression even though they are warnings in the reusable workflow.
• Workflow/YAML lint, ShellCheck, workflow documentation validation, REUSE, and whitespace checks passed locally. The live regression and all repository checks also passed on GitHub at 4790994.

Code of Conduct & Contributing Guidelines

• I agree to follow the Code of Conduct and Contributing Guidelines.

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Important

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⚙️ Run configuration

• Configuration used: Organization UI
• Review profile: CHILL
• Plan: Advanced
• Run ID: 52ac0459-1af0-412c-ab77-563c08a6137e

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[Copilot]

🟢 Approval recommended

The implementation is fail-closed where required, limits public disclosure, and includes comprehensive automated coverage.

0 open findings

What changed in this PR

Adds an opt-in Globalping fallback for Linkspector 403 responses while preserving strict handling for confirmed failures.

Changes:

• Adds secure public-probe verification and annotations.
• Adds unit and live regression coverage.
• Exposes and documents globalping_hosts.

File	Description
README.md	Documents fallback behavior and limits.
actions/​markdown-links/​test_check_links.py	Tests processing and regression behavior.
actions/​markdown-links/​live_check.py	Implements live regression verification.
actions/​markdown-links/​check_links.py	Processes reports and Globalping results.
actions/​markdown-links/​action.yml	Defines the shared composite action.
.gitignore	Ignores Python caches.
.github/​workflows/​self-standards.yml	Runs fallback unit tests.
.github/​workflows/​repository-standards.yml	Forwards the new input.
.github/​workflows/​markdown-links.yml	Uses the new shared action.
.github/​workflows/​link-check-regressions.yml	Adds scheduled and PR regression checks.
.github/​actionlint.yaml	Permits self-repository action syntax.

🧠 Review effort: Balanced

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