diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/components/editor/AiAssistant.vue b/apps/desktop/src/components/editor/AiAssistant.vue
index 60b755c88..34950f2ab 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/components/editor/AiAssistant.vue
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/components/editor/AiAssistant.vue
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ import { buildAiAgentPlan } from "@/lib/aiAgentPlan";
 import { buildAiAgentStepItems, type AiAgentStepItem, type AiAgentStepTone } from "@/lib/aiAgentStepPresentation";
 import { createAiShikiCodeHighlighter, type AiCodeHighlighter } from "@/lib/aiCodeHighlighter";
 import { createAiMessageRenderer } from "@/lib/aiMessageRender";
-import { Marked } from "marked";
+import { formatAiInlineMarkdown, handleAiMarkdownLinkClick } from "@/lib/aiMarkdown";
 import { aiCancelStream, aiListModels, saveAiConversation, loadAiConversations, deleteAiConversation, listSchemas, listTables, type AiConversation, type AiModelInfo } from "@/lib/api";
 import type { AiMessage } from "@/lib/api";
 import type { ConnectionConfig, QueryTab, TableInfo } from "@/types/database";
@@ -1021,32 +1021,27 @@ function triggerAction(action: AiAction, instruction?: string) {
 
 defineExpose({ triggerAction });
 
-const markedInstance = new Marked({
-  breaks: true,
-  gfm: true,
-  renderer: {
-    code({ text }: { text: string }) {
-      return `<code class="rounded bg-muted px-1.5 py-0.5 text-[11px] font-mono">${text}</code>`;
-    },
-  },
-});
-
-function formatInlineText(text: string): string {
-  try {
-    return markedInstance.parse(text) as string;
-  } catch {
-    return text.replace(/&/g, "&amp;").replace(/</g, "&lt;").replace(/>/g, "&gt;");
-  }
-}
-
 const messageRenderer = computed(() => {
   const appearance = aiCodeAppearance.value;
   const highlightCode = shikiCodeHighlighter.value;
   return createAiMessageRenderer({
-    markdown: formatInlineText,
+    markdown: formatAiInlineMarkdown,
     highlightCode: highlightCode ? (content, lang) => highlightCode(content, lang, appearance) : undefined,
   });
 });
+
+function onMarkdownClick(event: MouseEvent) {
+  handleAiMarkdownLinkClick(event, openExternalUrl);
+}
+
+async function openExternalUrl(url: string) {
+  try {
+    const { open } = await import("@tauri-apps/plugin-shell");
+    await open(url);
+  } catch {
+    window.open(url, "_blank", "noopener,noreferrer");
+  }
+}
 </script>
 
 <template>
@@ -1148,7 +1143,7 @@ const messageRenderer = computed(() => {
                 </div>
               </div>
               <template v-for="(seg, j) in messageRenderer.render(msg.content)" :key="j">
-                <div v-if="seg.type === 'text'" class="ai-markdown whitespace-normal">
+                <div v-if="seg.type === 'text'" class="ai-markdown whitespace-normal" @click.capture="onMarkdownClick">
                   <div v-html="seg.html" />
                 </div>
                 <div v-else class="my-2 overflow-hidden rounded-md border border-zinc-200 bg-zinc-50 dark:border-zinc-700/50 dark:bg-zinc-900">
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/lib/__tests__/aiMarkdown.spec.ts b/apps/desktop/src/lib/__tests__/aiMarkdown.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..92a578028
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/lib/__tests__/aiMarkdown.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import { aiMarkdownLinkUrlFromClick, formatAiInlineMarkdown, handleAiMarkdownLinkClick, normalizeAiMarkdownLink } from "@/lib/aiMarkdown";
+
+describe("formatAiInlineMarkdown", () => {
+  it("renders http links for external browser handling", () => {
+    const html = formatAiInlineMarkdown("See [docs](https://example.com/a?x=1&y=2).");
+
+    expect(html).toContain('href="https://example.com/a?x=1&amp;y=2"');
+    expect(html).toContain('target="_blank"');
+    expect(html).toContain('rel="noopener noreferrer"');
+  });
+
+  it("does not render unsafe link schemes", () => {
+    const html = formatAiInlineMarkdown("[run](javascript:alert(1))");
+
+    expect(html).toContain("run");
+    expect(html).not.toContain("javascript:");
+    expect(html).not.toContain("<a ");
+  });
+
+  it("escapes raw html from assistant text", () => {
+    const html = formatAiInlineMarkdown("<script>alert(1)</script>");
+
+    expect(html).toContain("&lt;script&gt;alert(1)&lt;/script&gt;");
+    expect(html).not.toContain("<script>");
+  });
+});
+
+describe("normalizeAiMarkdownLink", () => {
+  it("accepts absolute http and https urls", () => {
+    expect(normalizeAiMarkdownLink("https://example.com/docs")).toBe("https://example.com/docs");
+    expect(normalizeAiMarkdownLink("http://example.com/docs")).toBe("http://example.com/docs");
+  });
+
+  it("rejects relative and non-browser-safe urls", () => {
+    expect(normalizeAiMarkdownLink("/docs")).toBeNull();
+    expect(normalizeAiMarkdownLink("mailto:test@example.com")).toBeNull();
+    expect(normalizeAiMarkdownLink("javascript:alert(1)")).toBeNull();
+  });
+});
+
+describe("ai markdown link clicks", () => {
+  it("finds anchors from a clicked child node", () => {
+    const anchor = anchorWithHref("https://example.com/docs");
+    const target = { closest: (selector: string) => (selector === "a[href]" ? anchor : null) };
+    const currentTarget = { contains: (node: unknown) => node === anchor };
+
+    expect(aiMarkdownLinkUrlFromClick(target, currentTarget)).toBe("https://example.com/docs");
+  });
+
+  it("prevents default navigation and opens external links", () => {
+    const anchor = anchorWithHref("https://example.com/docs");
+    const target = { closest: () => anchor };
+    const currentTarget = { contains: () => true };
+    let prevented = false;
+    let stopped = false;
+    let opened = "";
+
+    const handled = handleAiMarkdownLinkClick(
+      {
+        target,
+        currentTarget,
+        preventDefault: () => {
+          prevented = true;
+        },
+        stopPropagation: () => {
+          stopped = true;
+        },
+      },
+      (url) => {
+        opened = url;
+      },
+    );
+
+    expect(handled).toBe(true);
+    expect(prevented).toBe(true);
+    expect(stopped).toBe(true);
+    expect(opened).toBe("https://example.com/docs");
+  });
+
+  it("ignores unsafe and out-of-scope links", () => {
+    const unsafeAnchor = anchorWithHref("javascript:alert(1)");
+    expect(aiMarkdownLinkUrlFromClick({ closest: () => unsafeAnchor }, { contains: () => true })).toBeNull();
+
+    const outsideAnchor = anchorWithHref("https://example.com/docs");
+    expect(aiMarkdownLinkUrlFromClick({ closest: () => outsideAnchor }, { contains: () => false })).toBeNull();
+  });
+});
+
+function anchorWithHref(href: string) {
+  return {
+    getAttribute: (name: string) => (name === "href" ? href : null),
+  };
+}
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/lib/aiMarkdown.ts b/apps/desktop/src/lib/aiMarkdown.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a489f29cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/lib/aiMarkdown.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+import { Marked, type Tokens } from "marked";
+
+const EXTERNAL_LINK_PROTOCOLS = new Set(["http:", "https:"]);
+
+export interface AiMarkdownLinkClickEvent {
+  target: unknown;
+  currentTarget: unknown;
+  preventDefault: () => void;
+  stopPropagation: () => void;
+}
+
+export type AiMarkdownLinkOpener = (url: string) => void | Promise<void>;
+
+const markedInstance = new Marked({
+  breaks: true,
+  gfm: true,
+  renderer: {
+    codespan({ text }: Tokens.Codespan) {
+      return `<code class="rounded bg-muted px-1.5 py-0.5 text-[11px] font-mono">${escapeHtml(text)}</code>`;
+    },
+    html({ text }: Tokens.HTML | Tokens.Tag) {
+      return escapeHtml(text);
+    },
+    link({ href, title, tokens }: Tokens.Link) {
+      const label = this.parser.parseInline(tokens);
+      const safeHref = normalizeAiMarkdownLink(href);
+      if (!safeHref) return label;
+
+      const titleAttr = title ? ` title="${escapeHtml(title)}"` : "";
+      return `<a href="${escapeHtml(safeHref)}"${titleAttr} target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">${label}</a>`;
+    },
+  },
+});
+
+export function formatAiInlineMarkdown(text: string): string {
+  try {
+    return markedInstance.parse(text) as string;
+  } catch {
+    return escapeHtml(text);
+  }
+}
+
+export function normalizeAiMarkdownLink(href: string): string | null {
+  try {
+    const url = new URL(href);
+    return EXTERNAL_LINK_PROTOCOLS.has(url.protocol) ? url.toString() : null;
+  } catch {
+    return null;
+  }
+}
+
+export function aiMarkdownLinkUrlFromClick(target: unknown, currentTarget: unknown): string | null {
+  const anchor = closestAnchor(target);
+  if (!anchor) return null;
+  if (hasContains(currentTarget) && !currentTarget.contains(anchor)) return null;
+
+  const href = anchor.getAttribute("href");
+  return href ? normalizeAiMarkdownLink(href) : null;
+}
+
+export function handleAiMarkdownLinkClick(event: AiMarkdownLinkClickEvent, openUrl: AiMarkdownLinkOpener): boolean {
+  const url = aiMarkdownLinkUrlFromClick(event.target, event.currentTarget);
+  if (!url) return false;
+
+  event.preventDefault();
+  event.stopPropagation();
+  void openUrl(url);
+  return true;
+}
+
+function escapeHtml(value: string): string {
+  return value.replace(/&/g, "&amp;").replace(/</g, "&lt;").replace(/>/g, "&gt;").replace(/"/g, "&quot;");
+}
+
+interface AnchorLike {
+  getAttribute: (name: string) => string | null;
+}
+
+function closestAnchor(target: unknown): AnchorLike | null {
+  const closestSource = hasClosest(target) ? target : parentWithClosest(target);
+  if (!closestSource) return null;
+
+  const anchor = closestSource.closest("a[href]");
+  return hasGetAttribute(anchor) ? anchor : null;
+}
+
+function parentWithClosest(target: unknown): { closest: (selector: string) => unknown } | null {
+  if (!target || typeof target !== "object" || !("parentElement" in target)) return null;
+  const parentElement = target.parentElement;
+  return hasClosest(parentElement) ? parentElement : null;
+}
+
+function hasClosest(value: unknown): value is { closest: (selector: string) => unknown } {
+  return !!value && typeof value === "object" && "closest" in value && typeof value.closest === "function";
+}
+
+function hasGetAttribute(value: unknown): value is AnchorLike {
+  return !!value && typeof value === "object" && "getAttribute" in value && typeof value.getAttribute === "function";
+}
+
+function hasContains(value: unknown): value is { contains: (node: unknown) => boolean } {
+  return !!value && typeof value === "object" && "contains" in value && typeof value.contains === "function";
+}