diff --git a/.github/scripts/dependencies.dockerfile b/.github/scripts/dependencies.dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d8e3bbfe1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/scripts/dependencies.dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# this file exists so that Renovate can auto-update docker image versions that are then used elsewhere
+
+FROM lycheeverse/lychee:sha-2aa22f8@sha256:2e3786630482c41f9f2dd081e06d7da1c36d66996e8cf6573409b8bc418d48c4 AS lychee
diff --git a/.github/scripts/link-check.sh b/.github/scripts/link-check.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..788e22830
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/scripts/link-check.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -e
+
+export MSYS_NO_PATHCONV=1 # for Git Bash on Windows
+
+SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
+LYCHEE_CONFIG="$SCRIPT_DIR/../../.lychee.toml"
+DEPENDENCIES_DOCKERFILE="$SCRIPT_DIR/dependencies.dockerfile"
+
+# Extract lychee version from dependencies.dockerfile
+LYCHEE_VERSION=$(grep "FROM lycheeverse/lychee:" "$DEPENDENCIES_DOCKERFILE" | sed 's/.*FROM lycheeverse\/lychee:\([^ ]*\).*/\1/')
+
+# Build the lychee command with optional GitHub token
+CMD="lycheeverse/lychee:$LYCHEE_VERSION --verbose --config $(basename "$LYCHEE_CONFIG")"
+
+# Add GitHub token if available
+if [[ -n "$GITHUB_TOKEN" ]]; then
+    CMD="$CMD --github-token $GITHUB_TOKEN"
+fi
+
+# Add the target directory
+CMD="$CMD ."
+
+# Determine if we should allocate a TTY
+DOCKER_FLAGS="--rm --init"
+if [[ -t 0 ]]; then
+    DOCKER_FLAGS="$DOCKER_FLAGS -it"
+else
+    DOCKER_FLAGS="$DOCKER_FLAGS -i"
+fi
+
+# Run lychee with proper signal handling
+# shellcheck disable=SC2086
+exec docker run $DOCKER_FLAGS -v "$(dirname "$LYCHEE_CONFIG")":/data -w /data $CMD
diff --git a/.github/scripts/markdown-link-check-config.json b/.github/scripts/markdown-link-check-config.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 3e0784cbf..000000000
--- a/.github/scripts/markdown-link-check-config.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "retryOn429": true,
-  "aliveStatusCodes": [
-    200,
-    403
-  ],
-  "ignorePatterns": [
-    {
-      "pattern": "^http://localhost:16686$"
-    },
-    {
-      "pattern": "^https://maven-badges.sml.io/maven-central/io.opentelemetry.android/.*$"
-    },
-    {
-      "pattern": "^https://central.sonatype.com/service/rest/repository/browse/maven-snapshots/.*$"
-    }
-  ]
-}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/scripts/markdown-link-check-with-retry.sh b/.github/scripts/markdown-link-check-with-retry.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 741d4a3d5..000000000
--- a/.github/scripts/markdown-link-check-with-retry.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash -e
-
-# this script helps to reduce sporadic link check failures by retrying at a file-by-file level
-
-retry_count=3
-
-for file in "$@"; do
-  for i in $(seq 1 $retry_count); do
-    if markdown-link-check --config "$(dirname "$0")/markdown-link-check-config.json" \
-                           "$file"; then
-      break
-    elif [[ $i -eq $retry_count ]]; then
-      exit 1
-    fi
-    sleep 5
-  done
-done
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yaml b/.github/workflows/build.yaml
index 402d27895..3122ac07a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yaml
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ jobs:
   markdown-link-check:
     # release branches are excluded to avoid unnecessary maintenance
     if: ${{ !startsWith(github.ref_name, 'release/') }}
-    uses: ./.github/workflows/reusable-markdown-link-check.yml
+    uses: ./.github/workflows/reusable-link-check.yml
 
   workflow-notification:
     permissions: # required by the reusable workflow
diff --git a/.github/workflows/reusable-link-check.yml b/.github/workflows/reusable-link-check.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..044e85e1f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/reusable-link-check.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+name: Reusable - Link check
+
+on:
+  workflow_call:
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+
+jobs:
+  link-check:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@11bd71901bbe5b1630ceea73d27597364c9af683 # v4.2.2
+
+      - name: Link check
+        env:
+          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
+        run: ./.github/scripts/link-check.sh
diff --git a/.github/workflows/reusable-markdown-link-check.yml b/.github/workflows/reusable-markdown-link-check.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index 57311d8ef..000000000
--- a/.github/workflows/reusable-markdown-link-check.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,24 +0,0 @@
-name: Reusable - Markdown link check
-
-on:
-  workflow_call:
-
-permissions:
-  contents: read
-
-jobs:
-  markdown-link-check:
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@11bd71901bbe5b1630ceea73d27597364c9af683 # v4.2.2
-
-      - name: Install markdown-link-check
-        # https://github.com/tcort/markdown-link-check/issues/297
-        run: npm install -g markdown-link-check@3.11.2
-
-      - name: Run markdown-link-check
-        run: |
-          find . -type f \
-                 -name '*.md' \
-                 -not -path './CHANGELOG.md' \
-               | xargs .github/scripts/markdown-link-check-with-retry.sh
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.lychee.toml b/.lychee.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6b4ee4d00
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.lychee.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+timeout = 30
+retry_wait_time = 5
+max_retries = 6
+max_concurrency = 4
+
+# Check link anchors
+include_fragments = true
+
+# excluding links to pull requests and issues is done for performance
+exclude = [
+  "^http://localhost:16686/$",
+  '^https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-android/(issues|pull)/\d+$',
+  "^https://maven-badges.sml.io/maven-central/io.opentelemetry.android/.*$",
+  "^https://central.sonatype.com/service/rest/repository/browse/maven-snapshots/.*$",
+]
diff --git a/reusable-link-check.yml b/reusable-link-check.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..044e85e1f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/reusable-link-check.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+name: Reusable - Link check
+
+on:
+  workflow_call:
+
+permissions:
+  contents: read
+
+jobs:
+  link-check:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@11bd71901bbe5b1630ceea73d27597364c9af683 # v4.2.2
+
+      - name: Link check
+        env:
+          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
+        run: ./.github/scripts/link-check.sh