diff --git a/docs/source/_static/rest-api.yml b/docs/source/_static/rest-api.yml
index f8ffb699..49f985e8 100644
--- a/docs/source/_static/rest-api.yml
+++ b/docs/source/_static/rest-api.yml
@@ -773,7 +773,7 @@ paths:
 
   /groups/{name}/users:
     post:
-      operationId: get-group-users
+      operationId: post-group-users
       summary: Add users to a group
       parameters:
         - $ref: "#/components/parameters/groupName"
diff --git a/docs/source/conf.py b/docs/source/conf.py
index 4b54ae18..87432343 100644
--- a/docs/source/conf.py
+++ b/docs/source/conf.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ from pathlib import Path
 from urllib.request import urlretrieve
 
 from docutils import nodes
+from ruamel.yaml import YAML
 from sphinx.directives.other import SphinxDirective
 from sphinx.util import logging
 
@@ -46,6 +47,10 @@ source_suffix = [".md"]
 # default_role let's use use `foo` instead of ``foo`` in rST
 default_role = "literal"
 
+docs = Path(__file__).parent.parent.absolute()
+docs_source = docs / "source"
+rest_api_yaml = docs_source / "_static" / "rest-api.yml"
+
 
 # -- MyST configuration ------------------------------------------------------
 # ref: https://myst-parser.readthedocs.io/en/latest/configuration.html
@@ -123,6 +128,43 @@ class HelpAllDirective(SphinxDirective):
         return [par]
 
 
+class RestAPILinksDirective(SphinxDirective):
+    """Directive to populate link targets for the REST API
+
+    The resulting nodes resolve xref targets,
+    but are not actually rendered in the final result
+    which is handled by a custom template.
+    """
+
+    hast_content = False
+    required_arguments = 0
+    optional_arguments = 0
+    final_argument_whitespace = False
+    option_spec = {}
+
+    def run(self):
+        targets = []
+        yaml = YAML(typ="safe")
+        with rest_api_yaml.open() as f:
+            api = yaml.load(f)
+        for path, path_spec in api["paths"].items():
+            for method, operation in path_spec.items():
+                operation_id = operation.get("operationId")
+                if not operation_id:
+                    logger.warning(f"No operation id for {method} {path}")
+                    continue
+                # 'id' is the id on the page (must match redoc anchor)
+                # 'name' is the name of the ref for use in our documents
+                target = nodes.target(
+                    ids=[f"operation/{operation_id}"],
+                    names=[f"rest-api-{operation_id}"],
+                )
+                targets.append(target)
+                self.state.document.note_explicit_target(target, target)
+
+        return targets
+
+
 templates_path = ["_templates"]
 
 
@@ -147,6 +189,7 @@ def setup(app):
     app.add_css_file("custom.css")
     app.add_directive("jupyterhub-generate-config", ConfigDirective)
     app.add_directive("jupyterhub-help-all", HelpAllDirective)
+    app.add_directive("jupyterhub-rest-api-links", RestAPILinksDirective)
 
 
 # -- Read The Docs -----------------------------------------------------------
@@ -155,8 +198,7 @@ def setup(app):
 # pre-requisite steps for "make html" from here if needed.
 #
 if os.environ.get("READTHEDOCS"):
-    docs = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))
-    subprocess.check_call(["make", "metrics", "scopes"], cwd=docs)
+    subprocess.check_call(["make", "metrics", "scopes"], cwd=str(docs))
 
 
 # -- Spell checking ----------------------------------------------------------
@@ -211,7 +253,6 @@ linkcheck_ignore = [
     "https://github.com/jupyterhub/jupyterhub/pull/",  # too many PRs in changelog
     "https://github.com/jupyterhub/jupyterhub/compare/",  # too many comparisons in changelog
     r"https?://(localhost|127.0.0.1).*",  # ignore localhost references in auto-links
-    r".*/rest-api.html#.*",  # ignore javascript-resolved internal rest-api links
     r"https://linux.die.net/.*",  # linux.die.net seems to block requests from CI with 403 sometimes
 ]
 linkcheck_anchors_ignore = [
diff --git a/docs/source/explanation/database.md b/docs/source/explanation/database.md
index 25c49dc6..1990da0d 100644
--- a/docs/source/explanation/database.md
+++ b/docs/source/explanation/database.md
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ Additionally, there is usually _very_ little load on the database itself.
 By far the most taxing activity on the database is the 'list all users' endpoint, primarily used by the [idle-culling service](https://github.com/jupyterhub/jupyterhub-idle-culler).
 Database-based optimizations have been added to make even these operations feasible for large numbers of users:
 
-1. State filtering on [GET /hub/api/users?state=active](../reference/rest-api.html#/default/get_users){.external},
+1. State filtering on [GET /hub/api/users?state=active](rest-api-get-users),
    which limits the number of results in the query to only the relevant subset (added in JupyterHub 1.3), rather than all users.
 2. [Pagination](api-pagination) of all list endpoints, allowing the request of a large number of resources to be more fairly balanced with other Hub activities across multiple requests (added in 2.0).
 
diff --git a/docs/source/howto/rest.md b/docs/source/howto/rest.md
index e27b0074..b7e2e880 100644
--- a/docs/source/howto/rest.md
+++ b/docs/source/howto/rest.md
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ Authorization header.
 ### Use requests
 
 Using the popular Python [requests](https://docs.python-requests.org)
-library, an API GET request is made, and the request sends an API token for
+library, an API GET request is made to [/users](rest-api-get-users), and the request sends an API token for
 authorization. The response contains information about the users, here's example code to make an API request for the users of a JupyterHub deployment
 
 ```python
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ r.raise_for_status()
 users = r.json()
 ```
 
-This example provides a slightly more complicated request, yet the
+This example provides a slightly more complicated request (to [/groups/formgrade-data301/users](rest-api-post-group-users)), yet the
 process is very similar:
 
 ```python
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ provided by notebook servers managed by JupyterHub if it has the necessary `acce
 
 Pagination is available through the `offset` and `limit` query parameters on
 list endpoints, which can be used to return ideally sized windows of results.
-Here's example code demonstrating pagination on the `GET /users`
+Here's example code demonstrating pagination on the [`GET /users`](rest-api-get-users)
 endpoint to fetch the first 20 records.
 
 ```python
@@ -353,12 +353,18 @@ hub:
 
 With that setting in place, a new named-server is activated like this:
 
+```{parsed-literal}
+[POST /api/users/:username/servers/:servername](rest-api-post-user-server-name)
+```
+
+e.g.
+
 ```bash
 curl -X POST -H "Authorization: token <token>" "http://127.0.0.1:8081/hub/api/users/<user>/servers/<serverA>"
 curl -X POST -H "Authorization: token <token>" "http://127.0.0.1:8081/hub/api/users/<user>/servers/<serverB>"
 ```
 
-The same servers can be stopped by substituting `DELETE` for `POST` above.
+The same servers can be [stopped](rest-api-delete-user-server-name) by substituting `DELETE` for `POST` above.
 
 ### Some caveats for using named-servers
 
diff --git a/docs/source/reference/rest-api.md b/docs/source/reference/rest-api.md
index 2dd79dd9..2a1db988 100644
--- a/docs/source/reference/rest-api.md
+++ b/docs/source/reference/rest-api.md
@@ -12,3 +12,14 @@ redoc_options:
 
 NOTE: The contents of this markdown file are not used,
 this page is entirely generated from `_templates/redoc.html` and `_static/rest-api.yml`
+
+REST API methods can be linked by their operationId in rest-api.yml,
+prefixed with `rest-api-`, e.g.
+
+```markdown
+you cat [GET /api/users](rest-api-get-users)
+```
+
+```{jupyterhub-rest-api-links}
+
+```
diff --git a/docs/source/reference/sharing.md b/docs/source/reference/sharing.md
index 34fa9e1f..f725a145 100644
--- a/docs/source/reference/sharing.md
+++ b/docs/source/reference/sharing.md
@@ -75,10 +75,14 @@ You can only modify access to one server at a time.
 To grant access to a particular user, in addition to `shares`, the granter must have at least `read:user:name` permission for the target user (or `read:group:name` if it's a group).
 
 Send a POST request to `/api/shares/:username/:servername` to grant permissions.
+
+```{parsed-literal}
+[POST /api/shares/:username/:servername](rest-api-post-shares-server)
+```
+
 The JSON body should specify what permissions to grant and whom to grant them to:
 
-```
-POST /api/shares/:username/:servername
+```python
 {
     "scopes": [],
     "user": "username", # or:
@@ -100,8 +104,8 @@ You can only modify access to one server at a time.
 
 Send a PATCH request to `/api/shares/:username/:servername` to revoke permissions.
 
-```
-PATCH /api/shares/:username/:servername
+```{parsed-literal}
+[PATCH /api/shares/:username/:servername](rest-api-patch-shares-server)
 ```
 
 The JSON body should specify the scopes to revoke
@@ -121,16 +125,16 @@ If `scopes` is empty or unspecified, _all_ scopes are revoked from the target us
 
 A DELETE request will revoke all shared access permissions for the given server.
 
-```
-DELETE /api/shares/:username/:servername
+```{parsed-literal}
+[DELETE /api/shares/:username/:servername](rest-api-delete-shares-server)
 ```
 
 ### View shares for a server
 
 To view shares for a given server, you need the permission `read:shares` with the appropriate _server_ filter.
 
-```
-GET /api/shares/:username/:servername
+```{parsed-literal}
+[GET /api/shares/:username/:servername](rest-api-get-shares-server)
 ```
 
 This is a paginated endpoint, so responses has `items` as a list of Share models, and `_pagination` for information about retrieving all shares if there are many:
@@ -158,34 +162,34 @@ This is a paginated endpoint, so responses has `items` as a list of Share models
 }
 ```
 
-see the [rest-api](rest-api) for full details of the response models.
+see the [rest-api](rest-api-get-shares-server) for full details of the response models.
 
 ### View servers shared with user or group
 
 To review servers shared with a given user or group, you need the permission `read:users:shares` or `read:groups:shares` with the appropriate _user_ or _group_ filter.
 
+```{parsed-literal}
+[GET /api/users/:username/shared](rest-api-get-user-shared)
 ```
 
-GET /api/users/:username/shared
-
-# or
-
-GET /api/groups/:groupname/shared
+or
 
+```{parsed-literal}
+[GET /api/groups/:groupname/shared](rest-api-get-group-shared)
 ```
 
 These are paginated endpoints.
 
 ### Access permission for a single user on a single server
 
+```{parsed-literal}
+[GET /api/users/:username/shared/:ownername/:servername](rest-api-get-user-shared-server)
 ```
 
-GET /api/users/:username/shared/:ownername/:servername
-
-# or
-
-GET /api/groups/:groupname/shared/:ownername/:servername
+or
 
+```{parsed-literal}
+[GET /api/groups/:groupname/shared/:ownername/:servername](rest-api-get-group-shared-server)
 ```
 
 will return the _single_ Share info for the given user or group for the server specified by `ownername/servername`,
@@ -197,14 +201,14 @@ To revoke sharing permissions from the perspective of the user or group being sh
 you need the permissions `users:shares` or `groups:shares` with the appropriate _user_ or _group_ filter.
 This allows users to 'leave' shared servers, without needing permission to manage the server's sharing permissions.
 
+```
+[DELETE /api/users/:username/shared/:ownername/:servername](rest-api-delete-user-shared-server)
 ```
 
-DELETE /api/users/:username/shared/:ownername/:servername
-
-# or
-
-DELETE /api/groups/:groupname/shared/:ownername/:servername
+or
 
+```
+[DELETE /api/groups/:groupname/shared/:ownername/:servername](rest-api-delete-group-shared-server)
 ```
 
 will revoke all permissions granted to the user or group for the specified server.
@@ -237,7 +241,7 @@ A Share returned in the REST API has the following structure:
 
 where exactly one of `user` and `group` is not null and the other is null.
 
-See the [rest-api](rest-api) for full details of the response models.
+See the [rest-api](rest-api-get-shares-server) for full details of the response models.
 
 ## Share via invitation code
 
@@ -259,8 +263,8 @@ Share codes are much like shares, except:
 
 To create a share code:
 
-```
-POST /api/share-code/:username/:servername
+```{parsed-literal}
+[POST /api/share-code/:username/:servername](rest-api-post-share-code)
 ```
 
 where the body should include the scopes to be granted and expiration.
@@ -288,7 +292,7 @@ The response contains the code itself:
 }
 ```
 
-See the [rest-api](rest-api) for full details of the response models.
+See the [rest-api](rest-api-post-share-code) for full details of the response models.
 
 ### Accepting sharing invitations
 
@@ -308,8 +312,8 @@ you will need to contact the owner of the server to start it.
 
 You can see existing invitations for
 
-```
-GET /hub/api/share-codes/:username/:servername
+```{parsed-literal}
+[GET /hub/api/share-codes/:username/:servername](rest-api-get-share-codes-server)
 ```
 
 which produces a paginated list of share codes (_excluding_ the codes themselves, which are not stored by jupyterhub):
@@ -373,14 +377,14 @@ and the `id` that can be used for revocation:
 }
 ```
 
-see the [rest-api](rest-api) for full details of the response models.
+see the [rest-api](rest-api-get-share-codes-server) for full details of the response models.
 
 ### Revoking invitations
 
 If you've finished inviting users to a server, you can revoke all invitations with:
 
-```
-DELETE /hub/api/share-codes/:username/:servername
+```{parsed-literal}
+[DELETE /hub/api/share-codes/:username/:servername](rest-api-delete-share-code)
 ```
 
 or revoke a single invitation code: