diff --git a/ui/src/components/MarkdownBody.test.tsx b/ui/src/components/MarkdownBody.test.tsx
index 8f64bf8f..0cae828d 100644
--- a/ui/src/components/MarkdownBody.test.tsx
+++ b/ui/src/components/MarkdownBody.test.tsx
@@ -187,16 +187,17 @@ describe("MarkdownBody", () => {
     expect(html).not.toContain('aria-label="Issue PAP-1271: PAP-1271"');
   });
 
-  it("rewrites full issue URLs to internal issue links", () => {
-    const html = renderMarkdown("See http://localhost:3100/PAP/issues/PAP-1179.", [
-      { identifier: "PAP-1179", status: "blocked" },
+  it("preserves absolute issue URLs as external links", () => {
+    const url = "http://remote.example.test:3103/PAPA/issues/PAPA-115#comment-850083f3-24de-43e7-a8cd-bc01f7cc9f0d";
+    const html = renderMarkdown(`See ${url}.`, [
+      { identifier: "PAPA-115", status: "blocked" },
     ]);
 
-    expect(html).toContain('href="/issues/PAP-1179"');
-    expect(html).toContain("text-red-600");
-    expect(html).toContain(">http://localhost:3100/PAP/issues/PAP-1179<");
-    expect(html).toContain('data-mention-kind="issue"');
-    expect(html).not.toContain("paperclip-mention-chip--issue");
+    expect(html).toContain(`href="${url}"`);
+    expect(html).toContain('target="_blank"');
+    expect(html).toContain("lucide-external-link");
+    expect(html).not.toContain('href="/issues/PAPA-115"');
+    expect(html).not.toContain("paperclip-markdown-issue-ref");
   });
 
   it("linkifies plain internal issue paths in markdown text", () => {
diff --git a/ui/src/lib/issue-reference.test.ts b/ui/src/lib/issue-reference.test.ts
index cd0f038a..54224bfb 100644
--- a/ui/src/lib/issue-reference.test.ts
+++ b/ui/src/lib/issue-reference.test.ts
@@ -9,8 +9,9 @@ describe("issue-reference", () => {
     expect(parseIssuePathIdFromPath("/issues/:id")).toBeNull();
   });
 
-  it("extracts issue ids from full issue URLs", () => {
-    expect(parseIssuePathIdFromPath("http://localhost:3100/PAP/issues/PAP-1179")).toBe("PAP-1179");
+  it("does not treat full issue URLs as internal issue paths", () => {
+    expect(parseIssuePathIdFromPath("http://localhost:3100/PAP/issues/PAP-1179")).toBeNull();
+    expect(parseIssuePathIdFromPath("http://remote.example.test:3103/PAPA/issues/PAPA-115#comment-850083f3-24de-43e7-a8cd-bc01f7cc9f0d")).toBeNull();
   });
 
   it("does not treat GitHub issue URLs as internal Paperclip issue links", () => {
@@ -24,15 +25,11 @@ describe("issue-reference", () => {
     expect(parseIssueReferenceFromHref("/issues/:id")).toBeNull();
   });
 
-  it("normalizes bare identifiers, issue URLs, and issue scheme links into internal links", () => {
+  it("normalizes bare identifiers, relative issue paths, and issue scheme links into internal links", () => {
     expect(parseIssueReferenceFromHref("pap-1271")).toEqual({
       issuePathId: "PAP-1271",
       href: "/issues/PAP-1271",
     });
-    expect(parseIssueReferenceFromHref("http://localhost:3100/PAP/issues/PAP-1179")).toEqual({
-      issuePathId: "PAP-1179",
-      href: "/issues/PAP-1179",
-    });
     expect(parseIssueReferenceFromHref("/PAP/issues/pap-1180")).toEqual({
       issuePathId: "PAP-1180",
       href: "/issues/PAP-1180",
@@ -54,6 +51,11 @@ describe("issue-reference", () => {
     });
   });
 
+  it("preserves absolute Paperclip issue URLs so origin, port, and hash are not lost", () => {
+    expect(parseIssueReferenceFromHref("http://localhost:3100/PAP/issues/PAP-1179")).toBeNull();
+    expect(parseIssueReferenceFromHref("http://remote.example.test:3103/PAPA/issues/PAPA-115#comment-850083f3-24de-43e7-a8cd-bc01f7cc9f0d")).toBeNull();
+  });
+
   it("ignores literal route placeholder paths", () => {
     expect(parseIssueReferenceFromHref("/issues/:id")).toBeNull();
     expect(parseIssueReferenceFromHref("http://localhost:3100/api/issues/:id")).toBeNull();
diff --git a/ui/src/lib/issue-reference.ts b/ui/src/lib/issue-reference.ts
index cbef86ff..616bb876 100644
--- a/ui/src/lib/issue-reference.ts
+++ b/ui/src/lib/issue-reference.ts
@@ -11,18 +11,9 @@ const ISSUE_REFERENCE_TOKEN_RE = /issue:\/\/:?[^\s<>()]+|https?:\/\/[^\s<>()]+|\
 
 export function parseIssuePathIdFromPath(pathOrUrl: string | null | undefined): string | null {
   if (!pathOrUrl) return null;
-  let pathname = pathOrUrl.trim();
+  const pathname = pathOrUrl.trim();
   if (!pathname) return null;
-
-  if (/^https?:\/\//i.test(pathname)) {
-    try {
-      const url = new URL(pathname);
-      if (url.hostname === "github.com" || url.hostname === "www.github.com") return null;
-      pathname = url.pathname;
-    } catch {
-      return null;
-    }
-  }
+  if (/^https?:\/\//i.test(pathname)) return null;
 
   const segments = pathname.split("/").filter(Boolean);
   const issueIndex = segments.findIndex((segment) => segment === "issues");
diff --git a/ui/src/lib/mention-chips.ts b/ui/src/lib/mention-chips.ts
index d2dbe1c7..b12311b4 100644
--- a/ui/src/lib/mention-chips.ts
+++ b/ui/src/lib/mention-chips.ts
@@ -37,6 +37,10 @@ export type ParsedMentionChip =
 const iconMaskCache = new Map<string, string>();
 
 export function parseMentionChipHref(href: string): ParsedMentionChip | null {
+  if (/^https?:\/\//i.test(href.trim())) {
+    return null;
+  }
+
   const issue = parseIssueReferenceHref(href);
   if (issue) {
     return {