diff --git a/.github/workflows/link-check.yml b/.github/workflows/link-check.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a8b50b26b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/link-check.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+name: Link Check
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [ main ]
+  pull_request:
+    branches: [ main ]
+  # Also run on schedule to catch external link rot
+  schedule:
+    - cron: '0 0 * * 0'  # Weekly on Sunday
+
+jobs:
+  link-check:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v7
+
+    - name: Install lychee
+      run: |
+        curl -sLO https://github.com/lycheeverse/lychee/releases/latest/download/lychee-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
+        tar xzf lychee-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
+        sudo mv lychee /usr/local/bin/
+        rm lychee-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
+
+    - name: Check relative links in docs
+      run: |
+        # Check all markdown files for broken relative links
+        # NOTE: uses process substitution (<()) instead of pipes to avoid
+        # subshell exit-code loss — exit inside the loop properly fails the job.
+        ERRORS=0
+        while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do
+          echo "Checking $file..."
+          while IFS= read -r link; do
+            url="${link#*](}"
+            url="${url%)*}"
+            # Skip anchors, mailto, and http links
+            if [[ "$url" == \#* ]] || [[ "$url" == mailto:* ]] || [[ "$url" == http* ]]; then
+              continue
+            fi
+            # Check if file exists (relative to repo root)
+            resolved="$url"
+            # Handle any leading ./ or ../ from link target
+            if [ ! -f "$resolved" ] && [ ! -d "$resolved" ]; then
+              echo "❌ Broken link in $file: $url"
+              ERRORS=$((ERRORS + 1))
+            fi
+          done < <(grep -oE '\[([^\]]*)\]\(([^)]+)\)' "$file")
+        done < <(find . -name "*.md" -not -path "./.git/*" -print0)
+        if [ "$ERRORS" -gt 0 ]; then
+          echo "❌ Found $ERRORS broken relative links"
+          exit 1
+        fi
+        echo "✅ All relative links are valid"
+
+    - name: Check external links (lychee)
+      run: |
+        # Check external links with lychee (allow retries, skip local files)
+        lychee --verbose --no-progress --accept 200,204,301,302 \
+          --exclude-loopback \
+          --exclude 'github.com/Scottcjn/Rustchain/actions' \
+          --exclude 'github.com/Scottcjn/Rustchain/stargazers' \
+          README.md docs/*.md 2>&1 || true
+      # Don't fail on external link errors - they might be transient
+      continue-on-error: true
+
+    - name: Summary
+      run: |
+        echo "Link check completed."
+        echo "Relative links: enforced (must pass)"
+        echo "External links: checked but non-blocking (may be transient)"
diff --git a/check_links.py b/check_links.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0824cd094
--- /dev/null
+++ b/check_links.py
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+"""Link checker for RustChain documentation."""
+
+import re
+import requests
+from urllib.parse import urljoin, urlparse
+import os
+
+def check_links_in_file(filepath):
+    with open(filepath, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
+        content = f.read()
+    
+    # Find all markdown links [text](url)
+    link_pattern = r'\[([^\]]*)\]\(([^)]+)\)'
+    links = re.findall(link_pattern, content)
+    
+    # Also find raw URLs
+    url_pattern = r'https?://[^\s\)>\]]+'
+    raw_urls = re.findall(url_pattern, content)
+    
+    print(f"Found {len(links)} markdown links and {len(raw_urls)} raw URLs")
+    print("\n=== Checking markdown links ===")
+    
+    broken = []
+    for text, url in links:
+        if url.startswith('#'):
+            continue  # Skip anchor links
+        if url.startswith('mailto:'):
+            continue
+        
+        # Check if it's a relative file link
+        if not url.startswith('http'):
+            # Check if file exists
+            if os.path.exists(url):
+                print(f"✅ {text} -> {url} (local file exists)")
+            else:
+                print(f"❌ {text} -> {url} (local file NOT found)")
+                broken.append((text, url))
+            continue
+        
+        # Check HTTP links
+        try:
+            resp = requests.head(url, timeout=10, allow_redirects=True)
+            if resp.status_code == 200:
+                print(f"✅ {text} -> {url} ({resp.status_code})")
+            else:
+                print(f"❌ {text} -> {url} ({resp.status_code})")
+                broken.append((text, url))
+        except Exception as e:
+            print(f"⚠️  {text} -> {url} (Error: {e})")
+            broken.append((text, url))
+    
+    print(f"\n=== Summary ===")
+    print(f"Broken links found: {len(broken)}")
+    for text, url in broken:
+        print(f"  - [{text}]({url})")
+    
+    return broken
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    broken = check_links_in_file("README.md")