# Feature Request: nrlint Detect Link Nodes Connected Across Flow Tabs

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/feature-request-nrlint-detect-link-nodes-connected-across-flow-tabs/97667>\
**Category:** Feature Requests\
**Created:** [17 June 2025 13:20 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/feature-request-nrlint-detect-link-nodes-connected-across-flow-tabs/97667 "2025-06-17T13:20:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![78wesley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/78wesley/32/101510_2.png) [@78wesley](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/78wesley)\
**Post date:** [17 June 2025 13:20 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/feature-request-nrlint-detect-link-nodes-connected-across-flow-tabs/97667/1 "2025-06-17T13:20:13Z")

</div>

Hey everyone,

In our team we’re working with Jambonz, and we rely on multiple flow tabs across various instances. Sometimes, when importing flows or using copy/paste, I’ve noticed that `link in` and `link out` nodes end up connected across tabs. Which isn't always obvious in the editor.

Right now, there’s no built-in way to spot when a `link out` is connected to a `link in` on another flow tab, and this has led to some subtle and hard-to-trace issues in our deployments.

It would be awesome if this kind of cross-tab link detection could be implemented in [`nrlint`](https://github.com/node-red/nrlint) as a rule. We’d love to flag this automatically before deploying flows.

Example Flow:

```json
[
  {
    "id": "e36062e25dde582e",
    "type": "tab",
    "label": "Flow 1",
    "disabled": false,
    "info": "",
    "env": []
  },
  {
    "id": "77ec5a2928f81681",
    "type": "link out",
    "z": "e36062e25dde582e",
    "name": "link out 4",
    "mode": "link",
    "links": ["58d242c5274dfb9f"],
    "x": 1025,
    "y": 120,
    "wires": []
  },
  {
    "id": "0d2cddaad035a262",
    "type": "tab",
    "label": "Flow 2",
    "disabled": false,
    "info": "",
    "env": []
  },
  {
    "id": "58d242c5274dfb9f",
    "type": "link in",
    "z": "0d2cddaad035a262",
    "name": "link in 1",
    "links": ["77ec5a2928f81681"],
    "x": 1015,
    "y": 120,
    "wires": [[]]
  }
]

```

Here’s a simple script I wrote to detect when `link out` and `link in` nodes are connected across different tabs:

```javascript
function findCrossTabLinks(flow) {
  const linkInNodes = flow.filter(n => n.type === "link in");
  const linkOutNodes = flow.filter(n => n.type === "link out");
  const tabs = flow.filter(n => n.type === "tab");
  const tabLabels = Object.fromEntries(tabs.map(tab => [tab.id, tab.label]));

  const result = [];

  linkOutNodes.forEach(outNode => {
    outNode.links.forEach(linkId => {
      const targetNode = linkInNodes.find(inNode => inNode.id === linkId);
      if (targetNode && outNode.z !== targetNode.z) {
        result.push({
          from: outNode.id,
          fromName: outNode.name || "",
          fromTab: outNode.z,
          fromTabLabel: tabLabels[outNode.z] || "",
          to: targetNode.id,
          toName: targetNode.name || "",
          toTab: targetNode.z,
          toTabLabel: tabLabels[targetNode.z] || "",
        });
      }
    });
  });

  return result;
}

```

Thanks!  
- Wesley

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MyRandomThoughts](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/myrandomthoughts/32/41085_2.png) [@MyRandomThoughts](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/MyRandomThoughts)\
**Post date:** [17 June 2025 17:30 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/feature-request-nrlint-detect-link-nodes-connected-across-flow-tabs/97667/2 "2025-06-17T17:30:03Z")

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Hi and welcome to the forums.

You can easily see where a link node is connected by clicking it.

Not selected...

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/b/1/b173aa338bee6cd716849222392460697c5b885d.png)

Selected...

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/7/f/7f71c4e1f3db57e239cc5b79f068d737dae1ae7c.png)

You can see that the top to are linked while the bottom one is linked to a node on an other tab.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![78wesley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/78wesley/32/101510_2.png) [@78wesley](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/78wesley)\
**Post date:** [5 July 2025 13:56 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/feature-request-nrlint-detect-link-nodes-connected-across-flow-tabs/97667/3 "2025-07-05T13:56:33Z")

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Hi MyRandomThoughts,

Yes, I know that you can see it when clicking on it, but I want to prevent it to happend because there are colleagues that can make this mistake.  
I've created a PR for this [Added support for cross tab link detection by 78wesley · Pull Request #45 · node-red/nrlint · GitHub](https://github.com/node-red/nrlint/pull/45).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [3 September 2025 13:57 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/feature-request-nrlint-detect-link-nodes-connected-across-flow-tabs/97667/4 "2025-09-03T13:57:22Z")

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