diff --git a/runtime/lua/vim/net.lua b/runtime/lua/vim/net.lua
index cd36e3027a5329..888f29b39354c1 100644
--- a/runtime/lua/vim/net.lua
+++ b/runtime/lua/vim/net.lua
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ function M.request(url, opts, on_response)
   local retry = opts.retry or 3
 
   -- Build curl command
-  local args = { 'curl' }
+  local args = { 'curl', '--max-time', '5' }
   if opts.verbose then
     table.insert(args, '--verbose')
   else
diff --git a/scripts/check_urls.lua b/scripts/check_urls.lua
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000000..05a3468fa90d86
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/check_urls.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env -S nvim -l
+
+-- Finds unreachable URLs in help files.
+--
+-- Usage:
+--    $ ./scripts/check_urls.lua [DIR...]
+--
+-- [DIR...] defaults to all 'doc' directories in the runtimepath.
+
+local ts = vim.treesitter
+
+local query = ts.query.parse('vimdoc', '(url) @url')
+
+---Read and return full content of given file path.
+---@param path string
+---@return string
+local function read_file(path)
+  local fd = assert(vim.uv.fs_open(path, 'r', tonumber('644', 8)))
+  local stat = assert(vim.uv.fs_fstat(fd))
+  local data = assert(vim.uv.fs_read(fd, stat.size, 0))
+  assert(vim.uv.fs_close(fd))
+  return data
+end
+
+---Extract URLs from a vimdoc file using the vimdoc TS parser.
+---@param helpfile string Path to help file
+---@return string[] # list of URLs found in the document
+local function extract_urls(helpfile)
+  ---@type string[]
+  local urls = {}
+  local source = read_file(helpfile)
+  local tree = ts.get_string_parser(source, 'vimdoc'):parse()[1]
+
+  for id, node in query:iter_captures(tree:root(), source) do
+    if query.captures[id] == 'url' then
+      local url = ts.get_node_text(node, source)
+      -- tree-sitter-vimdoc parses these as part of the url
+      if vim.endswith(url, '.') or vim.endswith(url, ',') then
+        url = url:sub(0, #url - 1)
+      end
+      urls[#urls + 1] = url
+    end
+  end
+
+  return urls
+end
+
+local function run()
+  local dirs = vim.list_slice(_G.arg, 1)
+  if #dirs < 1 then
+    dirs = vim.api.nvim_get_runtime_file('doc', true)
+  end
+
+  ---@type string[]
+  local help_files = {}
+  for _, dir in ipairs(dirs) do
+    vim.list_extend(
+      help_files,
+      vim.fs.find(function(name, _)
+        return vim.endswith(name, '.txt')
+      end, { path = dir, type = 'file', limit = math.huge })
+    )
+  end
+
+  ---@type table<string, string[]>
+  local all_urls = {}
+  local requests = 0
+  for _, file in ipairs(help_files) do
+    local urls = extract_urls(file)
+    requests = requests + #urls
+    all_urls[file] = urls
+  end
+
+  for file, file_urls in pairs(all_urls) do
+    for _, url in ipairs(file_urls) do
+      vim.net.request(url, { retry = 3 }, function(err, _)
+        if err then
+          vim.print(('Unreachable url %s in %s'):format(url, file))
+        end
+        requests = requests - 1
+        if requests <= 0 then
+          vim.uv.stop()
+        end
+      end)
+    end
+  end
+
+  -- wait for all pending async requests to finish (by calling vim.uv.stop())
+  vim.uv.run()
+end
+
+run()
diff --git a/scripts/check_urls.vim b/scripts/check_urls.vim
deleted file mode 100644
index b75dc29c48278e..00000000000000
--- a/scripts/check_urls.vim
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,89 +0,0 @@
-" Test for URLs in help documents.
-"
-" Opens a new window with all found URLS followed by return code from curl
-" (anything other than 0 means unreachable)
-"
-" Written by Christian Brabandt.
-
-func Test_check_URLs()
-"20.10.23, added by Restorer
-  if has("win32")
-    let s:outdev = 'nul'
-  else
-    let s:outdev = '/dev/null'
-  endif
-" Restorer: For Windows users. If "curl" or "wget" is installed on the system
-" but not in %PATH%, add the full path to them to %PATH% environment variable.
-  if executable('curl')
-    " Note: does not follow redirects!
-    let s:command1 = 'curl --silent --max-time 5 --fail --output ' ..s:outdev.. ' --head '
-    let s:command2 = ""
-  elseif executable('wget')
-    " Note: only allow a couple of redirects
-    let s:command1 = 'wget --quiet -S --spider --max-redirect=2 --timeout=5 --tries=2 -O ' ..s:outdev.. ' '
-    let s:command2 = ""
-  elseif has("win32") "20.10.23, added by Restorer
-    if executable('powershell')
-      if 2 == system('powershell -nologo -noprofile "$psversiontable.psversion.major"')
-        echoerr 'To work in OS Windows requires the program "PowerShell" version 3.0 or higher'
-        return
-      endif
-      let s:command1 = 
-            \ "powershell -nologo -noprofile \"{[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = 'Tls12, Tls11, Tls, Ssl3'};try{(Invoke-WebRequest -MaximumRedirection 2 -TimeoutSec 5 -Uri "
-      let s:command2 = ').StatusCode}catch{exit [int]$Error[0].Exception.Status}"'
-    endif
-  else
-    echoerr 'Only works when "curl" or "wget", or "powershell" is available'
-    return
-  endif
-
-  " Do the testing.
-  set report =999
-  set nomore shm +=s
-
-  let pat='\(https\?\|ftp\)://[^\t* ]\+'
-  exe 'helpgrep' pat
-  helpclose
-
-  let urls = map(getqflist(), 'v:val.text')
-  " do not use submatch(1)!
-  let urls = map(urls, {key, val -> matchstr(val, pat)})
-  " remove examples like user@host (invalid urls)
-  let urls = filter(urls, 'v:val !~ "@"')
-  " Remove example URLs which are invalid
-  let urls = filter(urls, {key, val -> val !~ '\<\(\(my\|some\)\?host\|machine\|hostname\|file\)\>'})
-  new
-  put =urls
-  " remove some more invalid items
-  " empty lines
-  "20.10.23, Restorer: '_' is a little faster, see `:h global`
-  v/./d _
-  " remove # anchors
-  %s/#.*$//e
-  " remove trailing stuff (parenthesis, dot, comma, quotes), but only for HTTP
-  " links
-  g/^h/s#[.),'"`/>][:.,]\?$##
-  g#^[hf]t\?tp:/\(/\?\.*\)$#d _
-  silent! g/ftp://,$/d _
-  silent! g/=$/d _
-  let a = getline(1,'$')
-  let a = uniq(sort(a))
-  %d _
-  call setline(1, a)
-
-  %s/.*/\=TestURL(submatch(0))/
-
-  " highlight the failures
-  /.* \([0-9]*[1-9]\|[0-9]\{2,}\)$
-endfunc
-
-func TestURL(url)
-  " Relies on the return code to determine whether a page is valid
-  echom printf("Testing URL: %d/%d %s", line('.'), line('$'), a:url)
-  call system(s:command1 .. shellescape(a:url) .. s:command2)
-  return printf("%s %d", a:url, v:shell_error)
-endfunc
-
-call Test_check_URLs()
-
-" vim: sw=2 sts=2 et