ci: fix markdown-link-check

[MikeMcC399]

Description

In .github/workflows/markdown-link-check.yml

• Update markdown-link-check to 3.14.1

In markdown_link_check_config.json

• Add ignorePatterns for
  • https://nodejs.org/
  • https://www.npmjs.com/
  • https://news.ycombinator.com/
• Remove httpHeaders for
  • https://docs.github.com

Motivation and Context

The workflow .github/workflows/markdown-link-check.yml is sporadically failing with HTTP 403 Forbidden errors for:

• https://nodejs.org/
• https://www.npmjs.com/
• https://news.ycombinator.com/

See workflow logs

The httpHeaders config section is no longer needed. Link checking to https://docs.github.com works without it.

See also the community post https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/174098 for background on https://www.npmjs.com/ heightened security.

Testing Details

On Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS, with Node.js 22.20.0 LTS

npm install markdown-link-check@3.14.1 -g
find . -name "*.md"  ! -path "./.git/*" | xargs -n 1 markdown-link-check -c markdown_link_check_config.json

No dead links should be reported.

Also tested in GitHub Actions https://github.com/MikeMcC399/docker-node/actions/workflows/markdown-link-check.yml

Example Output(if appropriate)

Types of changes

• Documentation
• Version change (Update, remove or add more Node.js versions)
• Variant change (Update, remove or add more variants, or versions of variants)
• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)
• Other (none of the above)

Checklist

• My code follows the code style of this project.
• My change requires a change to the documentation.
• I have updated the documentation accordingly.
• I have read the CONTRIBUTING.md document.
• All new and existing tests passed.

[MikeMcC399]

This PR addresses markdown-link-check CI failures in currently open PRs that make modifications to Markdown files (*.md), or add new Markdown files:

• Add comprehensive AGENTS.md agent guide #2295
• Move Mikeal Rogers to emeritus #2294

[mcollina]

lgtm

[MikeMcC399]

Responding in part to comments in PR #2297:

The justification for excluding the following domains is found by examining recent failing GitHub workflow logs for https://github.com/nodejs/docker-node/actions/workflows/markdown-link-check.yml:

nodejs.org
www.npmjs.com
news.ycombinator.com

Note that the failing results vary according to the response from the remote domains, so multiple workflow logs need to be checked:

https://github.com/nodejs/docker-node/actions/runs/18569189662 shows:

[✖] http://nodejs.org → Status: 403
[✖] https://www.npmjs.com/ → Status: 403
[✖] https://nodejs.org/en/security/ → Status: 403

https://github.com/nodejs/docker-node/actions/runs/18611871299 shows:

[✖] https://www.npmjs.com/ → Status: 403
[✖] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10782897 → Status: 403

For consistency, http://nodejs.org in the README document is updated to use the https protocol instead.

Other use of http could also be migrated, however I suggest to implement this in a separate PR, since it is not related to resolving 403 errors.

Similarly, the suggestion in #2297 to migrate from the npm package markdown-link-check to the GitHub Action tcort/github-action-markdown-link-check is not necessary to solve 403 errors. The action appears to be hardly used and does not track the npm package versions closely. Any migration should be a separate more detailed discussion.

---

If one of the maintainers would like to enable the workflows awaiting approval, I would expect them to pass.

[mcollina]

lgtm