diff --git a/cmd/linkcheck/links.go b/cmd/linkcheck/links.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7de7b9a4586
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/linkcheck/links.go
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2015 The Kubernetes Authors All rights reserved.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package main
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"os"
+	"path"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"regexp"
+	"strings"
+
+	flag "github.com/spf13/pflag"
+)
+
+var (
+	httpRE *regexp.Regexp
+
+	rootDir    = flag.String("root-dir", "", "Root directory containing documents to be processed.")
+	repoRoot   = flag.String("repo-root", "", `Root directory of k8s repository.`)
+	fileSuffix = flag.String("file-suffix", "", "suffix of files to be checked")
+	prefix     = flag.String("prefix", "", "Longest common prefix of the link URL, e.g., http://release.k8s.io/HEAD/ for links in pkg/api/types.go")
+)
+
+func newWalkFunc(invalidLink *bool) filepath.WalkFunc {
+	return func(filePath string, info os.FileInfo, err error) error {
+		if !strings.HasSuffix(info.Name(), *fileSuffix) {
+			return nil
+		}
+		fileBytes, err := ioutil.ReadFile(filePath)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		foundInvalid := false
+		matches := httpRE.FindAllSubmatch(fileBytes, -1)
+		for _, match := range matches {
+			//match[1] should look like docs/devel/api-conventions.md
+			if _, err := os.Stat(path.Join(*repoRoot, string(match[1]))); err != nil {
+				fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Link is not valid: %s\n", string(match[0]))
+				foundInvalid = true
+			}
+		}
+		if foundInvalid {
+			fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Found invalid links in %s\n", filePath)
+			*invalidLink = true
+		}
+		return nil
+	}
+}
+
+func main() {
+	flag.Parse()
+	httpRE = regexp.MustCompile(*prefix + `(.*\.md)`)
+
+	if *rootDir == "" || *repoRoot == "" || *prefix == "" {
+		flag.Usage()
+		os.Exit(2)
+	}
+	invalidLink := false
+	if err := filepath.Walk(*rootDir, newWalkFunc(&invalidLink)); err != nil {
+		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Fail: %v.\n", err)
+		os.Exit(2)
+	}
+	if invalidLink {
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/hack/lib/golang.sh b/hack/lib/golang.sh
index 5ee27ee917f..367ef9fa59f 100644
--- a/hack/lib/golang.sh
+++ b/hack/lib/golang.sh
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ kube::golang::server_targets() {
     cmd/kubelet
     cmd/hyperkube
     cmd/kubernetes
+    cmd/linkcheck
     plugin/cmd/kube-scheduler
   )
   if [ -n "${KUBERNETES_CONTRIB:-}" ]; then
diff --git a/hack/verify-linkcheck.sh b/hack/verify-linkcheck.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..b758179becc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/verify-linkcheck.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Copyright 2014 The Kubernetes Authors All rights reserved.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+set -o errexit
+set -o nounset
+set -o pipefail
+
+KUBE_ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}")/..
+source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/init.sh"
+
+kube::golang::setup_env
+linkcheck=$(kube::util::find-binary "linkcheck")
+
+if [[ ! -x "$linkcheck" ]]; then
+  {
+    echo "It looks as if you don't have a compiled linkcheck binary"
+    echo
+    echo "If you are running from a clone of the git repo, please run"
+    echo "'./hack/build-go.sh cmd/linkcheck'."
+  } >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+TYPEROOT="${KUBE_ROOT}/pkg/api/"
+"${linkcheck}" "--root-dir=${TYPEROOT}" "--repo-root=${KUBE_ROOT}" "--file-suffix=types.go" "--prefix=http://releases.k8s.io/HEAD" && ret=0 || ret=$?
+if [[ $ret -eq 1 ]]; then
+  echo "links in ${TYPEROOT} is out of date."
+  exit 1
+fi
+if [[ $ret -gt 1 ]]; then
+  echo "Error running linkcheck"
+  exit 1
+fi
diff --git a/hooks/pre-commit b/hooks/pre-commit
index 48965e4d3b6..c1ae5ee9d99 100755
--- a/hooks/pre-commit
+++ b/hooks/pre-commit
@@ -97,6 +97,16 @@ else
 fi
 echo "${reset}"
 
+echo -ne "Checking for links in API descriptions... "
+if ! hack/verify-linkcheck.sh > /dev/null; then
+  echo "${red}ERROR!"
+  echo "Some links in pkg/api/.*types.go is outdated. They require manual fix."
+  exit_code=1
+else
+  echo "${green}OK"
+fi
+echo "${reset}"
+
 echo -ne "Checking for docs that need updating... "
 if ! hack/verify-gendocs.sh > /dev/null; then
   echo "${red}ERROR!"
diff --git a/shippable.yml b/shippable.yml
index 824bb528513..7cfc58eac66 100644
--- a/shippable.yml
+++ b/shippable.yml
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ install:
   - PATH=$GOPATH/bin:$PATH ./hack/verify-generated-deep-copies.sh
   - PATH=$GOPATH/bin:./third_party/etcd:$PATH ./hack/verify-gendocs.sh
   - PATH=$GOPATH/bin:./third_party/etcd:$PATH ./hack/verify-swagger-spec.sh
+  - PATH=$GOPATH/bin:./third_party/etcd:$PATH ./hack/verify-linkcheck.sh
 
 script:
   - KUBE_RACE="-race" KUBE_COVER="y" KUBE_GOVERALLS_BIN="$HOME/gopath/bin/goveralls" KUBE_TIMEOUT='-timeout 300s' KUBE_COVERPROCS=8 KUBE_TEST_ETCD_PREFIXES="${KUBE_TEST_ETCD_PREFIXES}" KUBE_TEST_API_VERSIONS="${KUBE_TEST_API_VERSIONS}" ./hack/test-go.sh -- -p=2