The dead-link probe verifies every external citation in an AI-generated draft by dispatching lightweight, SSRF-safe streaming GET requests with byte-range headers (bytes=0-0) via a dedicated thread pool to inspect server responses without downloading full page bodies. Categorized into distinct verdict buckets—such as live, gone (4xx), server_error (5xx), and dead (unresponsive or blocked)—failed non-target links are parsed by character offset and cleanly unwrapped into plain text anchor words, ensuring readability remains intact without tearing holes in the surrounding article. Throughout this pruning sweep, the primary target URL is strictly protected from deletion so that underlying client placement issues surface directly to operators rather than failing the run silently as a missing link.