diff --git a/packages/docusaurus-utils/src/__tests__/markdownLinks.test.ts b/packages/docusaurus-utils/src/__tests__/markdownLinks.test.ts
index 6cda3578cf..8bc7fac4ee 100644
--- a/packages/docusaurus-utils/src/__tests__/markdownLinks.test.ts
+++ b/packages/docusaurus-utils/src/__tests__/markdownLinks.test.ts
@@ -62,6 +62,49 @@ describe('replaceMarkdownLinks', () => {
     `);
   });
 
+  test('reference style Markdown links', () => {
+    expect(
+      replaceMarkdownLinks({
+        siteDir: '.',
+        filePath: 'docs/intro/intro.md',
+        contentPaths: {
+          contentPath: 'docs',
+          contentPathLocalized: 'i18n/docs-localized',
+        },
+
+        sourceToPermalink: {
+          '@site/docs/intro/intro.md': '/docs/intro',
+          '@site/docs/api/classes/divine_uri.URI.md': '/docs/api/classes/uri',
+        },
+
+        fileString: `
+The following operations are defined for [URI]s:
+
+* [info]: Returns metadata about the resource,
+* [list]: Returns metadata about the resource's children (like getting the content of a local directory).
+
+[URI]:    ../api/classes/divine_uri.URI.md
+[info]:   ../api/classes/divine_uri.URI.md#info
+[list]:   ../api/classes/divine_uri.URI.md#list
+      `,
+      }),
+    ).toMatchInlineSnapshot(`
+      Object {
+        "brokenMarkdownLinks": Array [],
+        "newContent": "
+      The following operations are defined for [URI]s:
+
+      * [info]: Returns metadata about the resource,
+      * [list]: Returns metadata about the resource's children (like getting the content of a local directory).
+
+      [URI]:    /docs/api/classes/uri
+      [info]:   /docs/api/classes/uri#info
+      [list]:   /docs/api/classes/uri#list
+            ",
+      }
+    `);
+  });
+
   // TODO bad
   test('links in HTML comments', () => {
     expect(
diff --git a/packages/docusaurus-utils/src/markdownLinks.ts b/packages/docusaurus-utils/src/markdownLinks.ts
index 8831c05e0c..405de8c29b 100644
--- a/packages/docusaurus-utils/src/markdownLinks.ts
+++ b/packages/docusaurus-utils/src/markdownLinks.ts
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ export function replaceMarkdownLinks<T extends ContentPaths>({
     // ink
     // [doc1]: doc1.md -> we replace this doc1.md with correct link
     const mdRegex =
-      /(?:(?:\]\()|(?:\]:\s?))(?!https?:\/\/|@site\/)(?<filename>[^'")\]\s>]+\.mdx?)/g;
+      /(?:(?:\]\()|(?:\]:\s*))(?!https?:\/\/|@site\/)(?<filename>[^'")\]\s>]+\.mdx?)/g;
     let mdMatch = mdRegex.exec(modifiedLine);
     while (mdMatch !== null) {
       // Replace it to correct html link.