diff --git a/.changeset/legacy-hyphen-anchors.md b/.changeset/legacy-hyphen-anchors.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bb9b37036
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/legacy-hyphen-anchors.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@doc-kit/core': patch
+---
+
+Keep leading, trailing and repeated hyphens in heading slugs, so anchors match the old Node.js doc tooling again (`#-c---check` instead of `#-check`).
diff --git a/packages/core/src/generators/metadata/constants.mjs b/packages/core/src/generators/metadata/constants.mjs
index 7e7541472..2143396b4 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/generators/metadata/constants.mjs
+++ b/packages/core/src/generators/metadata/constants.mjs
@@ -7,9 +7,6 @@ export const DOC_API_SLUGS_REPLACEMENTS = [
   { from: /node.js/i, to: 'nodejs' }, // Replace Node.js
   { from: /&/, to: '-and-' }, // Replace &
   { from: /[/,:;\\ ]/g, to: '-' }, // Replace /,:;\. and whitespace
-  { from: /^-(?!-|$)/g, to: '' }, // Remove a single leading hyphen
-  { from: /(?<!^-*)-+$/g, to: '' }, // Remove any trailing hyphens
-  { from: /^(?!-)(?!-+$).*?(--+)/g, to: '-' }, // Replace multiple hyphens
 ];
 
 // Matches Node.js deprecation headings such as "DEP0001: Description".
diff --git a/packages/core/src/generators/metadata/utils/__tests__/slugger.test.mjs b/packages/core/src/generators/metadata/utils/__tests__/slugger.test.mjs
index 7252a0c5a..248c599eb 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/generators/metadata/utils/__tests__/slugger.test.mjs
+++ b/packages/core/src/generators/metadata/utils/__tests__/slugger.test.mjs
@@ -46,41 +46,36 @@ describe('slug', () => {
     });
   });
 
-  describe('leading hyphen removal', () => {
-    it('removes a single leading hyphen', () => {
-      assert.strictEqual(slug('-foo', identity), 'foo');
-    });
-
-    it('preserves multiple leading hyphens', () => {
+  describe('hyphens', () => {
+    it('preserves leading hyphens', () => {
+      assert.strictEqual(slug('-foo', identity), '-foo');
       assert.strictEqual(slug('--permission', identity), '--permission');
     });
 
-    it('preserves an all-hyphen string', () => {
-      assert.strictEqual(slug('---', identity), '---');
-    });
-  });
-
-  describe('trailing hyphen removal', () => {
-    it('removes a single trailing hyphen', () => {
-      assert.strictEqual(slug('foo-', identity), 'foo');
-    });
-
-    it('removes multiple trailing hyphens', () => {
-      assert.strictEqual(slug('foo--', identity), 'foo');
+    it('preserves trailing hyphens', () => {
+      assert.strictEqual(slug('foo--', identity), 'foo--');
     });
-  });
 
-  describe('consecutive hyphen replacement', () => {
-    it('replaces from start of string up to and including double-hyphen with a single hyphen', () => {
-      assert.strictEqual(slug('foo--bar', identity), '-bar');
+    it('preserves consecutive hyphens', () => {
+      assert.strictEqual(slug('foo--bar', identity), 'foo--bar');
     });
 
-    it('does not fire on an all-hyphen string', () => {
+    it('preserves an all-hyphen string', () => {
       assert.strictEqual(slug('---', identity), '---');
     });
+  });
 
-    it('does not collapse leading double hyphen flags', () => {
-      assert.strictEqual(slug('--allow-fs-read', identity), '--allow-fs-read');
+  describe('legacy Node.js anchors', () => {
+    it('matches the anchors of the old doc tooling', () => {
+      assert.strictEqual(slug('`-c`, `--check`'), '-c---check');
+      assert.strictEqual(
+        slug('DEP0147: `fs.rmdir(path, { recursive: true })`'),
+        'dep0147-fsrmdirpath--recursive-true-'
+      );
+      assert.strictEqual(
+        slug('Stability & Deprecation'),
+        'stability--deprecation'
+      );
     });
   });