From f0baf9a1d2293a34438c7c473e0f5361df874122 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Erin Shaben <eshaben@icloud.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2026 00:28:38 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] strip pymdownx attribute blocks from inline links in output

---
 plugins/ai_docs/plugin.py     |  7 +++++++
 tests/ai_docs/test_ai_docs.py | 14 ++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 21 insertions(+)

diff --git a/plugins/ai_docs/plugin.py b/plugins/ai_docs/plugin.py
index 1100f6f..ef683ad 100644
--- a/plugins/ai_docs/plugin.py
+++ b/plugins/ai_docs/plugin.py
@@ -610,6 +610,8 @@ def on_post_build(self, config):
             cleaned_body = self.remove_html_comments(resolved_body)
             if cleaned_body != resolved_body:
                 log.debug(f"[ai_docs] stripped HTML comments in {md_path}")
+            # Remove pymdownx attribute blocks from inline links
+            cleaned_body = self.remove_attribute_syntax(cleaned_body)
             # Convert path to slug and canonical URLs
             rel_path = Path(md_path).relative_to(docs_dir)
             rel_no_ext = str(rel_path.with_suffix(""))
@@ -1235,6 +1237,11 @@ def remove_html_comments(content: str) -> str:
         """Remove <!-- ... --> comments (multiline)."""
         return re.sub(r"<!--.*?-->", "", content, flags=re.DOTALL)
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def remove_attribute_syntax(content: str) -> str:
+        """Remove pymdownx attribute blocks from inline links e.g. [text](url){target=\_blank}."""
+        return re.sub(r"(?<=\))\s*\{[^}]+\}", "", content)
+
     @staticmethod
     def strip_snippet_section_markers(content: str) -> str:
         """Remove snippet section markers (# --8<-- [start:end]) from snippet content."""
diff --git a/tests/ai_docs/test_ai_docs.py b/tests/ai_docs/test_ai_docs.py
index e01b0d7..16e380c 100644
--- a/tests/ai_docs/test_ai_docs.py
+++ b/tests/ai_docs/test_ai_docs.py
@@ -418,6 +418,20 @@ def test_metadata_section_includes_versioning(self):
         assert "Version Hash: sha256:" in section
 
 
+# ===========================================================================
+# Cleanup methods
+# ===========================================================================
+
+class TestRemoveAttributeSyntax:
+    def test_strips_attribute_block_from_inline_link(self):
+        content = "[Link](https://example.com){target=\\_blank}"
+        assert AIDocsPlugin.remove_attribute_syntax(content) == "[Link](https://example.com)"
+
+    def test_no_attribute_block_unchanged(self):
+        content = "[Link](https://example.com)"
+        assert AIDocsPlugin.remove_attribute_syntax(content) == content
+
+
 # ===========================================================================
 # Page exclusions (ported from test_ai_page_actions)
 # ===========================================================================