diff --git a/src/lib/utils/note-links.test.ts b/src/lib/utils/note-links.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..67f0f9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/utils/note-links.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
+import { extractNoteLinks } from './note-links.js';
+
+describe('extractNoteLinks', () => {
+	it('should extract a single note-link reference', () => {
+		expect(extractNoteLinks('See [Grocery List](crumb-note://abc-123)')).toEqual(['abc-123']);
+	});
+
+	it('should extract multiple distinct references', () => {
+		const content = '[A](crumb-note://id-1) and [B](crumb-note://id-2)';
+		expect(extractNoteLinks(content)).toEqual(['id-1', 'id-2']);
+	});
+
+	it('should deduplicate repeated references', () => {
+		const content = '[A](crumb-note://id-1) again: [A again](crumb-note://id-1)';
+		expect(extractNoteLinks(content)).toEqual(['id-1']);
+	});
+
+	it('should return an empty array for content with no note-links', () => {
+		expect(extractNoteLinks('Just [a normal link](https://example.com)')).toEqual([]);
+	});
+
+	it('should return an empty array for empty content', () => {
+		expect(extractNoteLinks('')).toEqual([]);
+	});
+
+	it('should not match crumb-note:// occurring inside a code block', () => {
+		const content = '```\n[A](crumb-note://id-1)\n```';
+		expect(extractNoteLinks(content)).toEqual([]);
+	});
+
+	it('should not match crumb-note:// occurring inside inline code', () => {
+		expect(extractNoteLinks('Use `crumb-note://id-1` as an example')).toEqual([]);
+	});
+});
diff --git a/src/lib/utils/note-links.ts b/src/lib/utils/note-links.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6154ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/utils/note-links.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+/**
+ * Extract crumb-note://<id> references from markdown content.
+ * Mirrors extractTags' code-block/inline-code exclusion so a reference
+ * mentioned as an example inside a code sample isn't treated as a real link.
+ */
+export function extractNoteLinks(content: string): string[] {
+	if (!content) return [];
+
+	const withoutCodeBlocks = content.replace(/```[\s\S]*?```/g, '');
+	const withoutInlineCode = withoutCodeBlocks.replace(/`[^`]*`/g, '');
+
+	const matches = withoutInlineCode.match(/crumb-note:\/\/([\w-]+)/g);
+	if (!matches) return [];
+
+	const ids = matches.map((m) => m.replace('crumb-note://', ''));
+	return [...new Set(ids)];
+}