The outreach pruning engine performs socket-level HTTP checks using partial range requests to test every link in a generated draft, unwraps broken Markdown citations into plain text to remove dead references without damaging prose flow, while protecting the primary target URL from deletion.

flowchart LR
    A[Raw Generated Draft] --> B[Extract Markdown Links]
    B --> C{Probe URL via safe_get}
    C -->|2xx/3xx Live| D[Keep Markdown Link]
    C -->|Dead & Not Target| E[Unwrap to Plain Text]
    C -->|Dead Target URL| F[Flag Broken & Protect]
    D --> G[Cleaned Output Draft]
    E --> G
    F --> G