diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/test-skins.yml b/.gitea/workflows/test-skins.yml
index 6b0c6bba..2c94af6f 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/test-skins.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/test-skins.yml
@@ -23,17 +23,7 @@ jobs:
           ERRORS=()
 
           ############################################################
-          # Remove all NUL/control characters BEFORE any decoding
-          ############################################################
-          sanitize_url() {
-              printf '%s' "$1" \
-                | tr -d '\000' \
-                | tr -d '\r' \
-                | sed 's/[[:cntrl:]]//g'
-          }
-
-          ############################################################
-          # Safe unicode URL decode (no null bytes)
+          # Safe unicode URL decode (never produces NULL bytes)
           ############################################################
           urldecode() {
               local url="$1"
@@ -42,7 +32,7 @@ jobs:
           }
 
           ############################################################
-          # Detect Gitea "soft 404" even when status=200 OK
+          # Detect Gitea "soft 404" even when HTTP=200 OK
           ############################################################
           check_http() {
               local url="$1"
@@ -50,21 +40,19 @@ jobs:
 
               local status body
 
-              # Try HEAD first
               status=$(curl -Is --max-time 10 "$url" | head -n1 | awk '{print $2}')
               if [[ "$status" =~ ^2|3 ]]; then
                   body=$(curl -Ls --max-time 10 "$url")
-                  if echo "$body" | grep -qiE "404 Not Found|Path .* doesn't exist|File not found|does not exist|Not Found"; then
+                  if echo "$body" | grep -qiE "404 Not Found|doesn't exist|File not found|Not Found"; then
                       return 1
                   fi
                   return 0
               fi
 
-              # Try GET fallback
               status=$(curl -Is --max-time 10 -X GET "$url" | head -n1 | awk '{print $2}')
               if [[ "$status" =~ ^2|3 ]]; then
                   body=$(curl -Ls --max-time 10 "$url")
-                  if echo "$body" | grep -qiE "404 Not Found|Path .* doesn't exist|File not found|does not exist|Not Found"; then
+                  if echo "$body" | grep -qiE "404 Not Found|doesn't exist|File not found|Not Found"; then
                       return 1
                   fi
                   return 0
@@ -74,7 +62,7 @@ jobs:
           }
 
           ############################################################
-          # Local file existence check
+          # Local file check
           ############################################################
           check_local() {
               local path="$1"
@@ -88,34 +76,32 @@ jobs:
           }
 
           ############################################################
-          # Extract URLs from Markdown + HTML
+          # Extract links from markdown + HTML
           ############################################################
           extract_links() {
               local f="$1"
 
-              # Markdown links
               grep -oE '\[[^]]*\]\([^)]*\)' "$f" \
-                  | sed -E 's/.*\((.*)\).*/\1/'
+                | sed -E 's/.*\((.*)\).*/\1/'
 
-              # Markdown images
               grep -oE '!\[[^]]*\]\([^)]*\)' "$f" \
-                  | sed -E 's/.*\((.*)\).*/\1/'
+                | sed -E 's/.*\((.*)\).*/\1/'
 
-              # Raw URLs
               grep -oE 'https?://[^ )"]+' "$f"
 
-              # <img src="">
               grep -oE '<img[^>]*src="[^"]+"' "$f" \
-                  | sed -E 's/.*src="([^"]*)".*/\1/'
+                | sed -E 's/.*src="([^"]*)".*/\1/'
 
-              # <video src="">
               grep -oE '<video[^>]*src="[^"]+"' "$f" \
-                  | sed -E 's/.*src="([^"]*)".*/\1/'
+                | sed -E 's/.*src="([^"]*)".*/\1/'
           }
 
           echo "🔍 Scanning Markdown files..."
           echo
 
+          ############################################################
+          # Process all markdown files
+          ############################################################
           find . -type f -name '*.md' | while IFS= read -r mdfile; do
               echo "📄 Checking: $mdfile"
 
@@ -123,40 +109,36 @@ jobs:
                   [[ -z "$url" ]] && continue
                   [[ "$url" == mailto:* ]] && continue
 
-                  # Clean input BEFORE use
-                  cleaned=$(sanitize_url "$url")
-
-                  # Skip tag-version links in docs
-                  if [[ "$mdfile" == ./docs/* ]] && [[ "$cleaned" == *"/src/tag/"* ]]; then
+                  # Skip versioned docs tag links
+                  if [[ "$mdfile" == ./docs/* ]] && [[ "$url" == *"/src/tag/"* ]]; then
                       continue
                   fi
 
-                  # external
-                  if [[ "$cleaned" == http* ]]; then
-                      if ! check_http "$cleaned"; then
-                          ERRORS+=("❌ Broken external link: $cleaned (in $mdfile)")
+                  # External links
+                  if [[ "$url" == http* ]]; then
+                      if ! check_http "$url"; then
+                          ERRORS+=("❌ Broken external link: $url (in $mdfile)")
                       fi
-
-                  # local file
                   else
-                      if ! check_local "$cleaned"; then
-                          ERRORS+=("❌ Missing local file: $cleaned (in $mdfile)")
+                      # Local links
+                      if ! check_local "$url"; then
+                          ERRORS+=("❌ Missing local file: $url (in $mdfile)")
                       fi
                   fi
 
-              done < <(extract_links "$mdfile")
+              # 🌟 FULL FIX: sanitize extract_links output BEFORE loop
+              done < <(extract_links "$mdfile" | tr -d '\000' | tr -d '\r' | sed 's/[[:cntrl:]]//g')
 
               echo
           done
 
           ############################################################
-          # Final result
+          # Final report
           ############################################################
           echo
           if (( ${#ERRORS[@]} > 0 )); then
               echo -e "${RED}✖ Errors found:${RESET}"
               printf "%s\n" "${ERRORS[@]}"
-
               echo
               echo -e "${RED}❌ Failing job because broken links were found.${RESET}"
               exit 1