From 1b3bc87af897a6552f0ae11e515f2f1084d6e328 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Cursor Agent <cursoragent@cursor.com>
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2026 18:45:30 +0000
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] feat(web): open chat links in new tab with external link
 icon
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

- Add custom anchor renderer to MarkdownRenderer component
- Set target='_blank' and rel='noopener noreferrer' on all links
- Display subtle ExternalLinkIcon (↗) after link text
- Icon uses opacity-60 for muted appearance in both themes

Fixes SOU-822

Co-authored-by: Michael Sukkarieh <msukkari@users.noreply.github.com>
---
 .../components/chatThread/markdownRenderer.tsx | 18 +++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/packages/web/src/features/chat/components/chatThread/markdownRenderer.tsx b/packages/web/src/features/chat/components/chatThread/markdownRenderer.tsx
index b7e5daeb5..d6bec965d 100644
--- a/packages/web/src/features/chat/components/chatThread/markdownRenderer.tsx
+++ b/packages/web/src/features/chat/components/chatThread/markdownRenderer.tsx
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import { SearchQueryParams } from '@/lib/types';
 import { cn, createPathWithQueryParams } from '@/lib/utils';
 import type { Element, Root } from "hast";
 import { Schema as SanitizeSchema } from 'hast-util-sanitize';
-import { CopyIcon, SearchIcon } from 'lucide-react';
+import { CopyIcon, ExternalLinkIcon, SearchIcon } from 'lucide-react';
 import type { Heading, Nodes } from "mdast";
 import { findAndReplace } from 'mdast-util-find-and-replace';
 import { useRouter } from 'next/navigation';
@@ -171,6 +171,21 @@ const MarkdownRendererComponent = forwardRef<HTMLDivElement, MarkdownRendererPro
         )
     }, []);
 
+    const renderAnchor = useCallback(({ href, children, ...rest }: React.JSX.IntrinsicElements['a']) => {
+        return (
+            <a
+                href={href}
+                target="_blank"
+                rel="noopener noreferrer"
+                className="inline-flex items-center gap-0.5"
+                {...rest}
+            >
+                {children}
+                <ExternalLinkIcon className="inline w-3 h-3 mb-0.5 opacity-60" />
+            </a>
+        );
+    }, []);
+
     const renderCode = useCallback(({ className, children, node, ...rest }: React.JSX.IntrinsicElements['code'] & { node?: Element }) => {
         const text = children?.toString().trimEnd() ?? '';
 
@@ -239,6 +254,7 @@ const MarkdownRendererComponent = forwardRef<HTMLDivElement, MarkdownRendererPro
                 components={{
                     pre: renderPre,
                     code: renderCode,
+                    a: renderAnchor,
                 }}
             >
                 {content}

From ea8f59f8bb5948abca8ed87c36897ac82c91a684 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Cursor Agent <cursoragent@cursor.com>
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:23:11 +0000
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] docs: add changelog entry for external link icon feature

Co-authored-by: Michael Sukkarieh <msukkari@users.noreply.github.com>
---
 CHANGELOG.md | 3 +++
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a3a20f55e..f60e5d076 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Changed
+- Links in Ask Sourcebot chat responses now open in a new tab with a subtle external link icon indicator. [#1059](https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/pull/1059)
+
 ## [4.16.3] - 2026-03-27
 
 ### Added