Finding Broken Links: Claude Desktop vs Claude Code
Before sending a document to print or publishing it online, you need to verify that all the hyperlinks actually work. Clicking through dozens of URLs manually is nobody’s idea of a good time.
With Sidekick, you can ask Claude to do this for you. But there’s a catch: Claude needs to be able to browse the web to check if those links are valid. How that works depends on whether you’re using Claude Desktop or Claude Code.
The Two Approaches
Claude Desktop: It Figures It Out
Claude Desktop doesn’t have web browsing built in. Normally, you’d add a tool like Firecrawl to give it that ability.
But in the demo, Claude Desktop doesn’t have Firecrawl connected—and it still manages to find the broken links. It struggles a bit more, but it gets there. It finds all the hyperlinks, checks which URLs are valid, and marks the broken ones with a character style. Without proper web access, the results may be less accurate—Claude has to get creative, and that means some broken links might slip through.
Adding Firecrawl would make this smoother and faster. But the point is that Claude can figure it out even without the perfect setup.
Claude Code: Works Out of the Box
Claude Code is Anthropic’s command-line tool for Claude. Unlike Claude Desktop, it has web fetching built in.
That means with just Sidekick connected, Claude Code can validate your links immediately—no extra setup required. It finds all the hyperlinks, checks each URL, identifies the broken ones, and marks them red.
Which Should You Use?
Use Claude Desktop if you prefer a visual chat interface. It works without Firecrawl, but adding it will make link validation faster and more reliable.
Use Claude Code if you’re comfortable working in a terminal. Link validation works immediately with just Sidekick installed.
Both approaches give you the same result: broken links identified and marked in your document, ready for you to fix or remove.
Coming Soon: Claude Cowork
Anthropic just released Claude Cowork this week—a new desktop agent that brings Claude Code’s capabilities to a friendlier interface. Like Claude Code, it has web fetching built in, so link validation should work without any extra setup.
Stay tuned for a Claude Cowork version of this tutorial.