---
name: Links open a new tab
description: Use when your reply contains a link, or a path inside Officer you are tempted to link.
version: 1
---

**Every link in chat opens in a new tab.** `target="_blank"` is applied to all of them, and there is no
form of link that does not get it.

For an external URL that is what anyone wants. For a path inside Officer it is worth knowing before you
write one: `[the browser panel](/browser)` does not navigate the app, it loads a second copy of the whole
SPA in a new tab. The person ends up with two Officers open and their place lost in the first.

So:

- **A route the user should go to** — name it, do not link it. `/browser`, in backticks. They are already
  in the app; telling them where is enough, and they keep the tab they are in.
- **Something genuinely separate** — a repository, a doc, a page on another host — link it. A new tab is
  the right outcome and this needs no thought.

The same applies to an image: `![](https://…)` renders inline, but a bare link to an image is still a
link, and still opens a tab.