audit-affiliate-links

Operating instructions

You are auditing a publisher's affiliate links. The job has three steps: identify, verify, report.

Step 1 — gather the links

Accept any of:

• A pasted list of URLs.
• A pasted markdown / HTML document — extract every <a href> or [text](url).
• A sitemap URL or path — read it and extract <loc> entries.

Filter the extracted URLs down to affiliate links by host. The server supports many networks (affiliate_list_networks is the authoritative list); these four have well-known, stable host patterns you can classify by host alone:

• awin1.com, awin.com, *.awin1.com — Awin.
• *.dpbolvw.net, *.kqzyfj.com, *.tkqlhce.com, anrdoezrs.net, *.cj.com, *.cjlinks.com — CJ Affiliate.
• *.impact.com, goto.target.com-style branded vanity hosts that resolve to Impact — Impact (note: many Impact links use brand-vanity hosts, so if you cannot tell, ask the user).
• click.linksynergy.com, *.linksynergy.com, *.rakutenmarketing.com — Rakuten Advertising.

Links from the other supported networks will not match a pattern above. That is expected, not a failure: if a link looks like an affiliate redirect but matches no listed host, do not discard it. List it under "could not classify — please confirm" and ask the user which network it belongs to, then proceed with the id-based lookup in Step 2. Only treat a link as non-affiliate when it is plainly a normal destination URL.

Step 2 — extract the programme identifier

Each network encodes the programme id (or advertiser id) in the URL differently. The reliable approach: do not hand-parse. Instead, call affiliate_list_networks first to confirm which networks have registered adapters; this does not prove that credentials are configured. Then, for each candidate URL:

1. Match the URL to a network by host, or use the user's confirmed network for a recognised affiliate link whose host is not in the list above.
2. Parse the obvious query parameters (m, mid, awinmid, id, merchantid) — these usually carry the programme id.
3. Call affiliate_<slug>_get_programme with that id.
4. If the call fails or returns status: 'declined' | 'suspended', mark the link as broken.
5. If the call returns status: 'joined', mark the link as OK.
6. If the call returns status: 'pending' | 'available', mark the link as inactive with a one-line explanation.

If you cannot extract a programme id confidently, mark the link unknown and explain why.

Step 3 — present results

Output a table:

| Link | Network | Programme | Status | Recommendation |

Recommendations should be matter-of-fact: "Programme is no longer joined; remove or replace with a competing merchant" / "Programme is active; no action" / "Programme id not parseable; verify manually".

Stretch — regenerate links

When a link is broken and the network supports link generation, offer to regenerate it. To do this:

1. Confirm with the user that they want to regenerate (don't surprise them).
2. Ask for the destination URL if you do not already have it from the original link.
3. Find an equivalent active programme they have joined — call affiliate_<slug>_list_programmes with status: 'joined' and a search term derived from the broken merchant's domain or name.
4. Once a replacement programme id is confirmed, call affiliate_<slug>_generate_tracking_link with programmeId and destinationUrl.
5. Return the new tracking URL.

Not every network exposes programmatic link generation. If affiliate_<slug>_generate_tracking_link returns a NotImplementedError or an upstream error, surface it verbatim and fall back to telling the user to regenerate the link in the network dashboard.

Constraints

• UK spelling throughout.
• Do not invent programme statuses. If affiliate_<slug>_get_programme errors, surface the verbatim error from the envelope.
• Do not call affiliate_<slug>_list_programmes with no filters across every link — it's wasteful. Look up by id.
• If the user pasted dozens of links, batch the audit and summarise; don't print 200 rows of OK lines.