diff --git a/.lychee.toml b/.lychee.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5360e2720
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.lychee.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+include-fragments = true
+
+exclude  = [
+    # excluding links to pull requests and issues is done for performance
+    "^https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-proto/pull/\\d+$",
+    "^https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-proto/issue/\\d+$"
+]
+
+# better to be safe and avoid failures
+max-retries = 6
diff --git a/.markdown_link_check_config.json b/.markdown_link_check_config.json
deleted file mode 100644
index f8cf2cdd0..000000000
--- a/.markdown_link_check_config.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "ignorePatterns": [
-    {
-      "pattern": "^https://github\\.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/(issues|pull)"
-    }
-  ],
-  "replacementPatterns": [
-    {
-      "pattern": "^/",
-      "replacement": "{{BASEURL}}/"
-    },
-    {
-      "pattern": "^https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-proto/(blob|tree)/[^/]+/docs/",
-      "replacement": "LINK-CHECK-ERROR-USE-LOCAL-PATH-TO-DOC-PAGE-NOT-EXTERNAL-URL/"
-    }
-  ],
-  "retryOn429": true,
-  "aliveStatusCodes": [
-    200,
-    403
-  ]
-}
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 4f52d69f2..75be19adb 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -170,11 +170,13 @@ ALL_DOCS := $(shell find . -type f -name '*.md' -not -path './.github/*' -not -p
 
 .PHONY: markdown-link-check
 markdown-link-check:
-	@if ! npm ls markdown-link-check; then npm install; fi
-	@for f in $(ALL_DOCS); do \
-		npx --no -- markdown-link-check --quiet --config .markdown_link_check_config.json $$f \
-			|| exit 1; \
-	done
+	docker run --rm \
+		--mount 'type=bind,source=$(PWD),target=/home/repo' \
+		lycheeverse/lychee \
+		--config home/repo/.lychee.toml \
+		--root-dir /home/repo \
+		-v \
+		home/repo
 
 .PHONY: markdownlint
 markdownlint: