xlinkit is a lightweight application service that provides rule-based link generation and checks the consistency of distributed web content. It leverages standard Internet technologies, notably XML and XLink. xlinkit can be used as part of a consistency management scheme or in applications that require smart link generation, including portal construction and management of large document repositories. In this paper we show how consistency constraints can be expressed and checked. We describe a method for generating links based on the result of the checks and we give an account of our content management strategy. We present the architecture of our service and the results of a substantial `real-world' evaluation. 1Department of Computer Science, University College London, Research Note RN/00/06. Submitted for publication.