The present technology pertains to a link service that can create, maintain, and service links to objects on behalf of a content management system or other services. The link service can share administration of links with other services when desired or can even allow other services to issue the link and manage the object that is the subject of the link while providing other functions to support the link. Additionally, link service can interface with a file system that can support links as actors in the file system, whereby greater control and flexibility in supporting links is provided. Link service can also accommodate servicing and management of links issued by legacy services, where the legacy services have unique link logic that should still be utilized to maintain a consistent user experience.