diff --git a/docs/docset.yml b/docs/docset.yml
index b7bb07219..e89280629 100644
--- a/docs/docset.yml
+++ b/docs/docset.yml
@@ -1,32 +1,6 @@
 project: 'doc-builder'
 cross_links:
   - docs-content
-# docs-builder will warn for links to external hosts not declared here
-external_hosts:
-  - slack.com
-  - mystmd.org
-  - microsoft.com
-  - azure.com
-  - mistral.ai
-  - amazon.com
-  - python.org
-  - cohere.com
-  - docker.com
-  - langchain.com
-  - nodejs.org
-  - yarnpkg.com
-  - react.dev
-  - palletsprojects.com
-  - google.com
-  - checkvist.com
-  - commonmark.org
-  - github.io
-  - github.com
-  - pandoc.org
-  - atlassian.net
-  - elastic.dev
-  - visualstudio.com
-  - wikipedia.org
 exclude:
   - '_*.md'
 subs:
diff --git a/src/Elastic.Markdown/IO/Configuration/ConfigurationFile.cs b/src/Elastic.Markdown/IO/Configuration/ConfigurationFile.cs
index 6e8f24186..e6352591b 100644
--- a/src/Elastic.Markdown/IO/Configuration/ConfigurationFile.cs
+++ b/src/Elastic.Markdown/IO/Configuration/ConfigurationFile.cs
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ public record ConfigurationFile : DocumentationFile
 	public HashSet<string> Files { get; } = new(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
 	public HashSet<string> ImplicitFolders { get; } = new(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
 	public Glob[] Globs { get; } = [];
-	public HashSet<string> ExternalLinkHosts { get; } = new(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase) { "elastic.co", "github.com", "localhost", };
 
 	private readonly Dictionary<string, string> _substitutions = new(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
 	public IReadOnlyDictionary<string, string> Substitutions => _substitutions;
@@ -80,12 +79,6 @@ public ConfigurationFile(IFileInfo sourceFile, IDirectoryInfo rootPath, BuildCon
 					case "subs":
 						_substitutions = ReadDictionary(entry);
 						break;
-					case "external_hosts":
-						var hosts = ReadStringArray(entry)
-							.ToArray();
-						foreach (var host in hosts)
-							ExternalLinkHosts.Add(host);
-						break;
 					case "toc":
 						if (depth > 1)
 						{
@@ -97,6 +90,9 @@ public ConfigurationFile(IFileInfo sourceFile, IDirectoryInfo rootPath, BuildCon
 
 						TableOfContents = entries;
 						break;
+					case "external_hosts":
+						EmitWarning($"{key} has been deprecated and will be removed", entry.Key);
+						break;
 					default:
 						EmitWarning($"{key} is not a known configuration", entry.Key);
 						break;
diff --git a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Myst/InlineParsers/DiagnosticLinkInlineParser.cs b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Myst/InlineParsers/DiagnosticLinkInlineParser.cs
index 15ff98b50..e8cdedbbd 100644
--- a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Myst/InlineParsers/DiagnosticLinkInlineParser.cs
+++ b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Myst/InlineParsers/DiagnosticLinkInlineParser.cs
@@ -143,13 +143,11 @@ private bool ValidateExternalUri(LinkInline link, InlineProcessor processor, Par
 			return false;
 
 		var baseDomain = uri.Host == "localhost" ? "localhost" : string.Join('.', uri.Host.Split('.')[^2..]);
-		if (!context.Configuration.ExternalLinkHosts.Contains(baseDomain))
+		if (uri.Scheme == "mailto" && baseDomain != "elastic.co")
 		{
 			processor.EmitWarning(
 				link,
-				$"External URI '{uri}' is not allowed. Add '{baseDomain}' to the " +
-				$"'external_hosts' list in the configuration file '{context.Configuration.SourceFile}' " +
-				"to allow links to this domain."
+				$"mailto links should be to elastic.co domains. Found {uri.Host} in {link.Url}. "
 			);
 		}
 
diff --git a/tests/authoring/Inline/InlineLinks.fs b/tests/authoring/Inline/InlineLinks.fs
index 4792dcbd5..3e917f04f 100644
--- a/tests/authoring/Inline/InlineLinks.fs
+++ b/tests/authoring/Inline/InlineLinks.fs
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ type ``inline link with mailto not allowed external host`` () =
     let ``has no errors`` () = markdown |> hasNoErrors
 
     [<Fact>]
-    let ``has warning`` () = markdown |> hasWarning "External URI 'mailto:fake-email@somehost.co' is not allowed."
+    let ``has warning`` () = markdown |> hasWarning "mailto links should be to elastic.co domains."
 
 type ``empty link should result in an error`` () =