Ignoring Specific Domains and Link Patterns
The best reports are the ones that only show you what matters. Ignore rules allow you to bypass development links and private environments with surgical precision.
Why Use Ignore Rules?
Modern documentation often contains links that are technically valid but practically uncheckable from a browser, such as:
Without ignore rules, these would always show up as "Broken" or "Timed Out," cluttering your report and hiding actual broken production links. AxelBase applies these filters locally before any network request is even attempted.
Excluding Staging & Private Environments
Internal company wikis or preview deployments often require VPNs or specific authentication. You can exclude these by adding specific domain patterns to your list:
Common Ignore Patterns:
dev-— Skips any URL containing "dev-".local— Skips local network addresses/admin— Skips specific path segments
Best Practices for Clean Reports
Start with a minimal set. Over-filtering can lead to "Silent Failures" where legitimate broken links are hidden because your rules were too broad. We recommend:
The Filter Strategy
Run an initial check without rules. Identify which domains are causing "false positives," then add them to your session's ignore list. This keeps your signal-to-noise ratio high.
The final article in this series explores handling relative paths, internal references, and anchor links for complete local documentation validation.