---
title: "manifest · Link relation · zhead"
canonical_url: "https://zhead.dev/link/manifest"
last_updated: "2026-08-19T02:35:55.674Z"
meta:
  description: "Links the page to a web app manifest, a JSON document that describes properties such as the app name, icons, display mode, scope, and start URL."
  "og:description": "Links the page to a web app manifest, a JSON document that describes properties such as the app name, icons, display mode, scope, and start URL."
  "og:title": "manifest · Link relation · zhead"
---

Link

# manifest

Links the page to a web app manifest, a JSON document that describes properties such as the app name, icons, display mode, scope, and start URL.

## Code examples

Good example

```
<link rel="manifest" href="/app.webmanifest">
```

Links to a same-origin web app manifest. A relative URL is valid here.

Avoid this example

```
<link rel="manifest">
```

Has no href, so the browser cannot fetch a manifest.

## Recommendations

- 01 Serve valid JSON A syntax error or invalid member can stop some or all of the manifest from being applied. Check the parsed manifest in browser developer tools.
- 02 Set scope deliberately Keep start\_url within scope. Otherwise the user agent falls back to the document URL when it processes the manifest.
- 03 Use crossorigin for credentials If a cross-origin manifest needs cookies or HTTP authentication, set crossorigin="use-credentials" and configure the server's CORS response.

## Related documentation

- [HTML Living Standard: Links](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/links.html#link-type-manifest)
- [W3C: Appmanifest](https://www.w3.org/TR/appmanifest/)