diff --git a/src/app/utils/magic-link-email.js b/src/app/utils/magic-link-email.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..79a10ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/app/utils/magic-link-email.js
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+// Escape a URL for safe embedding in an HTML attribute.
+const escapeHtml = (value) =>
+  value
+    .replaceAll("&", "&")
+    .replaceAll("<", "&lt;")
+    .replaceAll(">", "&gt;")
+    .replaceAll('"', "&quot;");
+
+// Build the SendGrid v3 mail/send request body for a magic-link email.
+// Tracked separately so the request shape can be unit-tested without a
+// SendGrid API call or the auth instance's DB pool.
+export const buildMagicLinkPayload = ({ email, url, fromEmail, subject }) => ({
+  personalizations: [{ to: [{ email }] }],
+  from: { email: fromEmail },
+  subject,
+  tracking_settings: {
+    // Magic-link URL must read as the real codebar.io link,
+    // not a Sendgrid /LsClick tracking redirect.
+    click_tracking: { enable: false },
+    open_tracking: { enable: false },
+  },
+  content: [
+    {
+      type: "text/plain",
+      value: `Click the link below to sign in to codebar:\n\n${url}\n\nThis link expires in 5 minutes.`,
+    },
+    {
+      type: "text/html",
+      value: `<p>Click the button below to sign in to codebar.</p><p><a href="${escapeHtml(url)}" style="display:inline-block;padding:10px 18px;background-color:#2e5fa3;color:#ffffff;border-radius:4px;text-decoration:none;">Sign in to codebar</a></p><p>This link expires in 5 minutes.</p>`,
+    },
+  ],
+});
diff --git a/src/auth.js b/src/auth.js
index e7d8477..596290b 100644
--- a/src/auth.js
+++ b/src/auth.js
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { admin, magicLink, jwt } from "better-auth/plugins";
 import { oauthProvider } from "@better-auth/oauth-provider";
 import appConfig from "./config.js";
 import { devMagicLinks } from "./dev/magic-links.js";
+import { buildMagicLinkPayload } from "./app/utils/magic-link-email.js";
 
 // PostgreSQL connection pool for CI/production and local dev
 // SSL only for non-local connections (Heroku requires it; local/CI does not)
@@ -103,17 +104,14 @@ export const auth = betterAuth({
               Authorization: `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
               "Content-Type": "application/json",
             },
-            body: JSON.stringify({
-              personalizations: [{ to: [{ email }] }],
-              from: { email: fromEmail },
-              subject: "Sign in to codebar",
-              content: [
-                {
-                  type: "text/plain",
-                  value: `Click the link below to sign in to codebar:\n\n${url}\n\nThis link expires in 5 minutes.`,
-                },
-              ],
-            }),
+            body: JSON.stringify(
+              buildMagicLinkPayload({
+                email,
+                url,
+                fromEmail,
+                subject: "Sign in to codebar",
+              }),
+            ),
           });
 
           if (!res.ok) {
diff --git a/test/unit/magic-link-email.test.js b/test/unit/magic-link-email.test.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b6f209b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/unit/magic-link-email.test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+import { test } from "tap";
+import { buildMagicLinkPayload } from "../../src/app/utils/magic-link-email.js";
+
+test("buildMagicLinkPayload disables SendGrid click tracking", async (t) => {
+  const payload = buildMagicLinkPayload({
+    email: "user@codebar.io",
+    url: "https://auth.codebar.io/api/auth/magic-link/verify?token=abc",
+    fromEmail: "auth-noreply@codebar.io",
+    subject: "Sign in to codebar",
+  });
+
+  t.equal(payload.tracking_settings.click_tracking.enable, false);
+  t.equal(payload.tracking_settings.open_tracking.enable, false);
+});
+
+test("buildMagicLinkPayload embeds the real URL in the plain-text body", async (t) => {
+  const url = "https://auth.codebar.io/api/auth/magic-link/verify?token=xyz";
+  const payload = buildMagicLinkPayload({
+    email: "user@codebar.io",
+    url,
+    fromEmail: "auth-noreply@codebar.io",
+    subject: "Sign in to codebar",
+  });
+
+  t.equal(payload.personalizations[0].to[0].email, "user@codebar.io");
+  t.equal(payload.from.email, "auth-noreply@codebar.io");
+  t.equal(payload.subject, "Sign in to codebar");
+  t.equal(payload.content[0].type, "text/plain");
+  t.ok(payload.content[0].value.includes(url));
+});
+
+test("buildMagicLinkPayload adds HTML part with escaped href", async (t) => {
+  const url =
+    "https://auth.codebar.io/api/auth/magic-link/verify?token=a+b&x=1";
+  const payload = buildMagicLinkPayload({
+    email: "user@codebar.io",
+    url,
+    fromEmail: "auth-noreply@codebar.io",
+    subject: "Sign in to codebar",
+  });
+
+  const html = payload.content.find((c) => c.type === "text/html");
+  t.ok(html, "has an HTML part");
+  t.match(html.value, /<a href="/);
+  t.match(html.value, /Sign in to codebar<\/a>/);
+
+  // HTML-escaped href: & and + must be encoded so the link parses intact
+  const escaped =
+    "https://auth.codebar.io/api/auth/magic-link/verify?token=a+b&amp;x=1";
+  t.ok(html.value.includes(escaped));
+});