tooling: Create efficient protocol cross-reference validation script

[michael-wojcik]

Context

From PR #113 peer review (backend reviewer recommendation).

Description

Protocol files reference each other with markdown links like [algedonic.md](../protocols/algedonic.md). These should be validated to catch broken links.

Requirements

• Scan all markdown files in pact-plugin/
• Extract markdown link references ([text](path.md))
• Verify each referenced file exists
• Report broken references with source file and line number
• Exit non-zero if any broken references found

Technical Notes

An initial implementation was created but is too slow (nested loops with perl/python3 per line). Consider:

• Batch processing with a single grep pass
• Pure bash with efficient patterns
• Or a small Python script for better performance

Location

scripts/verify-protocol-references.sh

Labels

tooling, enhancement