The Problems panel scans your project for issues that are easy to miss while writing — most importantly, links and images that point to something that no longer exists. It is a docked panel at the bottom of the window, sharing that area with the Terminal and the Find panel.
Opening the Problems Panel
Click the Problems icon in the activity rail on the far left to show or hide the panel. When you first open it, it shows a Check References card to start a scan.
Check References
Check References scans every Markdown file in the project and reports references that cannot be resolved. It catches:
- File not found — a link or image points to a file that does not exist (for example, a file that was renamed or deleted)
- Heading not found — a
#anchorlink points to a heading that is not present in the target document - Unreachable external URL — optionally, an external link that returns an error, shown with its HTTP status
Start a scan from the Check References card, or from Tools > Check References in the menu. While the scan runs, the panel shows progress; when it finishes, the results appear grouped by file.
Reading the Results
Each file that contains a problem becomes a group in the tree, and expanding it lists every broken reference in that file. Each entry shows:
- The line number where the reference appears
- The reference text as written in the document
- A short reason — “file not found”, “heading … not found”, or the HTTP status for an unreachable URL
Click an entry to open the file and jump to the line so you can fix it. After making changes, use Rescan to run the check again and confirm the problem is resolved.
When to Use It
Running Check References is most useful before publishing or sharing a document, after a round of renaming or reorganizing files, or when you have moved content between documents. It complements the inline broken-link notification you get when you click a link that does not resolve — the Problems panel finds every such issue across the whole project in one pass, rather than one at a time.