diff --git a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Myst/InlineParsers/DiagnosticLinkInlineParser.cs b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Myst/InlineParsers/DiagnosticLinkInlineParser.cs
index 0f2f1b614..f38bab684 100644
--- a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Myst/InlineParsers/DiagnosticLinkInlineParser.cs
+++ b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Myst/InlineParsers/DiagnosticLinkInlineParser.cs
@@ -184,6 +184,12 @@ private static void ProcessCrossLink(LinkInline link, InlineProcessor processor,
 				uri, out var resolvedUri)
 			 )
 			link.Url = resolvedUri.ToString();
+
+		// Emit error for empty link text in crosslinks
+		if (link.FirstChild == null)
+		{
+			processor.EmitError(link, $"Crosslink '{url}' has empty link text. Please provide explicit link text.");
+		}
 	}
 
 	private static void ProcessInternalLink(LinkInline link, InlineProcessor processor, ParserContext context)
diff --git a/tests/Elastic.Markdown.Tests/Inline/InlineLinkTests.cs b/tests/Elastic.Markdown.Tests/Inline/InlineLinkTests.cs
index a7644bf99..142f453f5 100644
--- a/tests/Elastic.Markdown.Tests/Inline/InlineLinkTests.cs
+++ b/tests/Elastic.Markdown.Tests/Inline/InlineLinkTests.cs
@@ -164,6 +164,62 @@ public void EmitsCrossLink()
 	}
 }
 
+public class CrossLinkEmptyTextTest(ITestOutputHelper output) : LinkTestBase(output,
+	"""
+
+	Go to [](kibana://index.md)
+	"""
+)
+{
+	[Fact]
+	public void GeneratesHtml() =>
+		// language=html - empty crosslinks now emit an error
+		Html.Should().Contain(
+			"""<p>Go to <a href="https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/kibana/tree/main/" hx-select-oob="#main-container" preload="mousedown"></a></p>"""
+		);
+
+	[Fact]
+	public void HasError() =>
+		Collector.Diagnostics.Should().Contain(d =>
+			d.Severity == Severity.Error &&
+			d.Message.Contains("empty link text"));
+
+	[Fact]
+	public void EmitsCrossLink()
+	{
+		Collector.CrossLinks.Should().HaveCount(1);
+		Collector.CrossLinks.Should().Contain("kibana://index.md");
+	}
+}
+
+public class CrossLinkEmptyTextNoTitleTest(ITestOutputHelper output) : LinkTestBase(output,
+	"""
+
+	Go to [](kibana://get-started/index.md)
+	"""
+)
+{
+	[Fact]
+	public void GeneratesHtml() =>
+		// language=html - empty crosslinks emit an error
+		Html.Should().Contain(
+			"""<p>Go to <a href="https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/kibana/tree/main/get-started" hx-select-oob="#main-container" preload="mousedown"></a></p>"""
+		);
+
+	[Fact]
+	public void HasError() =>
+		Collector.Diagnostics.Should().Contain(d =>
+			d.Severity == Severity.Error &&
+			d.Message.Contains("empty link text"));
+
+	[Fact]
+	public void EmitsCrossLink()
+	{
+		Collector.CrossLinks.Should().HaveCount(1);
+		Collector.CrossLinks.Should().Contain("kibana://get-started/index.md");
+	}
+}
+
 public class LinkWithUnresolvedInterpolationError(ITestOutputHelper output) : LinkTestBase(output,
 	"""
 	[global search field]({{this-variable-does-not-exist}}/introduction.html#kibana-navigation-search)
diff --git a/tests/authoring/Framework/TestCrossLinkResolver.fs b/tests/authoring/Framework/TestCrossLinkResolver.fs
index 6657de9d1..a8357699e 100644
--- a/tests/authoring/Framework/TestCrossLinkResolver.fs
+++ b/tests/authoring/Framework/TestCrossLinkResolver.fs
@@ -90,3 +90,4 @@ type TestCrossLinkResolver (config: ConfigurationFile) =
             CrossLinkResolver.TryResolve(errorEmitter, crossLinks, uriResolver, crossLinkUri, &resolvedUri)
 
 
+