Add a custom linkifier

This feature is only available to organization owners and administrators.

Linkifiers make it easy to refer to issues or tickets in third party issue trackers, like GitHub, Salesforce, Zendesk, and others. For instance, you can add a linkifier that automatically turns #2468 into a link to https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/2468.

You can configure linkifiers to work in reverse as well: when you paste a URL that matches the linkifier into the compose box, Zulip will automatically convert it to linked text (e.g., https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/2468 becomes #2468).

If a linkifier pattern (e.g., #2468) appears in the name of a topic, Zulip adds an Open () button to the right of the topic in the message recipient bar that links to the appropriate URL.

If you have any trouble creating the linkifiers you want, please contact Zulip support with details on what you’re trying to do.

Add a custom linkifier

All linkifiers automatically turn text matching the specified pattern into links. You can also configure pasted links matching the URL template to automatically convert to linked text.

1. Go to Linkifiers.
2. Click Add linkifier.
3. Enter the Example text to linkify, and the Pattern that will match it and similar text.
4. Enter the URL template for where text matching the pattern should link.
5. (optional) To enable automatic conversion of pasted URLs to linked text, fill in Auto-convert pasted URLs matching the template to.
6. Click Add.

Tip: Use the same variables in the Pattern, URL template, and Auto-convert pasted URLs matching the template to fields.

Edit a custom linkifier

1. Go to Linkifiers.
2. In the Actions column, click the edit () icon for the linkifier you want to edit.
3. Edit linkifier information as desired, and click Save changes.

Delete a custom linkifier

1. Go to Linkifiers.
2. In the Actions column, click the delete () icon for the linkifier you want to delete.
3. Approve by clicking Confirm.

Reorder linkifiers

Linkifiers are processed in order, and will not apply to text that is already linkified. You can therefore choose which linkifiers to prioritize when more than one linkifier applies. The same priority order applies for converting URLs to shortened links. See the overlapping patterns section for examples.

1. Go to Linkifiers.
2. In the Example column, click and drag the vertical dots to reorder the list of linkifiers.

Common linkifier patterns

The following examples cover the most common types of linkifiers, with a focus on linkifiers for issues or tickets.

Link to an issue or ticket

This is a pattern that turns a # followed by a number into a link. It is often used to link to issues or tickets in third party issue trackers, like GitHub, Salesforce, Zendesk, and others.

• Example text to linkify: #2468
• Pattern: #(?P<id>[0-9]+)
• URL template: https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/{id}
• Auto-convert pasted URLs matching the template to: #{id}
• Automatically links to: https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/2468

Link to issues or tickets in multiple projects or apps

To set up linkifiers for issues or tickets in multiple projects, consider extending the #2468 format with project-specific variants. For example, the Zulip development community uses #M2468 for an issue in the repository for the Zulip mobile app, #D2468 and issue in the desktop app repository, etc.

• Example text to linkify: #F245
• Pattern: #F(?P<id>[0-9]+)
• URL template: https://github.com/zulip/zulip-flutter/issues/{id}
• Auto-convert pasted URLs matching the template to: #F{id}
• Automatically links to: https://github.com/zulip/zulip-flutter/issues/245

Link to issues or tickets in multiple repositories

For organizations that commonly link to multiple GitHub repositories, this linkfier pattern turns org/repo#ID into an issue or pull request link.

• Example text to linkify: zulip/zulip#2468
• Pattern: (?P<org>[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/(?P<repo>[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)#(?P<id>[0-9]+)
• URL template: https://github.com/{org}/{repo}/issues/{id}
• Auto-convert pasted URLs matching the template to: {org}/{repo}#{id}
• Automatically links to: https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/2468

Link to a hexadecimal issue or ticket number

The following pattern linkfies a string of hexadecimal digits between 7 and 40 characters long, such as a Git commit ID.

• Example text to linkify: abdc123
• Pattern: (?P<id>[0-9a-f]{7,40})
• URL template: https://github.com/zulip/zulip/commit/{id}
• Auto-convert pasted URLs matching the template to: {id}
• Automatically links to: https://github.com/zulip/zulip/commit/abcd123

Advanced linkifier patterns

Linkifiers are a flexible system that can be used to construct rules for a wide variety of situations. Linkifier patterns are regular expressions, using the re2 regular expression engine.

Linkifiers use RFC 6570 compliant URL templates to describe how links should be generated. These templates support several expression types. The default expression type ({var}) will URL-encode special characters like / and &; this behavior is desired for the vast majority of linkifiers. Fancier URL template expression types can allow you to get the exact behavior you want in corner cases like optional URL query parameters. For example:

• Use {+var} when you want URL delimiter characters to not be URL-encoded.
• Use {?var} and {&var} for variables in URL query parameters.
• Use {#var} when generating # fragments in URLs.

The URL template specification has brief examples and detailed examples explaining the precise behavior of URL templates.

Linking to documentation pages

This example pattern is a shorthand for linking to pages on Zulip’s ReadTheDocs site.

• Example text to linkify: RTD/overview/changelog.html
• Pattern: RTD/(?P<article>[a-zA-Z0-9_/.#-]+)
• URL template: https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/{+article}
• Auto-convert pasted URLs matching the template to: RTD/{article}
• Automatically links to: https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/overview/changelog.html

Tip: This pattern uses the {+var} expression type. With the default expression type ({article}), the / between overview and changelog would incorrectly be URL-encoded.

Linking to Google search results

This example pattern allows linking to Google searches.

• Pattern: google:(?P<q>\w+)?
• URL template: https://google.com/search{?q}
• Original text: google:foo or google:
• Automatically links to: https://google.com/search?q=foo or https://google.com/search

Tip: This pattern uses the {?var} expression type. With the default expression type ({q}), there would be no way to only include the ? in the URL if the optional q is present.

Overlapping patterns

This example shows how specific linkifiers can be combined with more general ones to offer succinct linked text for the most commonly referenced links. For example, if you could have:

• A specific linkifier for the zulip/zulip GitHub repository, so that #123 links to an issue or pull request in that repository.
• A general linkifier for all GitHub repositories.

You would set that up with:

• Specific linkifier (ordered before the general linkifier)
  • Example text to linkify: #123
  • Pattern: #(?P<id>[0-9]+)
  • URL template: https://github.com/zulip/zulip/pull/{id}
  • Auto-convert pasted URLs matching the template to: #{id}
• General linkifier
  • Example text to linkify: org/repo#123
  • Pattern: (?P<org>[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/(?P<repo>[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)#(?P<id>[0-9]+)
  • URL template: https://github.com/{org}/{repo}/pull/{id}
  • Auto-convert pasted URLs matching the template to: {org}/{repo}#{id}

With the specific linkifier ordered first, when both linkifiers match, the specific linkifier will take precedence:

• Original text: #123
• Automatically links to: https://github.com/zulip/zulip/pull/123
• Pasting https://github.com/zulip/zulip/pull/123 auto-converts to: #123

When only the general linkifier matches:

• Original text: django/django#123
• Automatically links to: https://github.com/django/django/pull/123
• Pasting https://github.com/django/django/pull/123 auto-converts to: django/django#123

Tip: This set of patterns has overlapping regular expressions and URL templates. The specific linkifier will only get prioritized over the general linkifier if it is ordered before the more general pattern. The same priority order applies when auto-converting pasted URLs. This can be customized by dragging and dropping existing linkifiers into the desired order. New linkifiers will automatically be ordered last.