diff --git a/gulp-src/lint-md.js b/gulp-src/lint-md.js
index 513c8d37bf49..2866588575a3 100644
--- a/gulp-src/lint-md.js
+++ b/gulp-src/lint-md.js
@@ -6,13 +6,15 @@ const markdownlint = require('markdownlint');
 const { taskArgs, trimBlankLinesFromArray } = require('./_util');
 const fs = require('fs');
 
-const defaultGlob = '**/*.md';
+const defaultGlobs = ['**/*.md'];
 const markdownFiles = [
   '!.github/**',
   '!content-modules/**',
+  '!examples/**',
   '!layouts/**',
   '!node_modules/**',
   '!scripts/registry-scanner/node_modules/**',
+  '!tools/examples/**',
   '!themes/**',
   '!tmp/**',
 ];
@@ -121,13 +123,28 @@ function applyFixesToFileContent(content, issue) {
   return lines.join('\n');
 }
 
+function logFiles(debug) {
+  return through2.obj(function (file, enc, cb) {
+    if (debug) {
+      console.log('Processing file:', file.path);
+    }
+    cb(null, file);
+  });
+}
+
 function lintMarkdown() {
   const argv = taskArgs().options({
     glob: {
       alias: 'g',
-      type: 'string',
-      description: 'Glob of files to run through markdownlint.',
-      default: defaultGlob,
+      type: 'array',
+      description:
+        'Globs of files to run through markdownlint. List flag more than once for multiple values.',
+      default: defaultGlobs,
+    },
+    debug: {
+      type: 'boolean',
+      description: 'Output debugging information.',
+      default: false,
     },
     fix: {
       type: 'boolean',
@@ -142,8 +159,14 @@ function lintMarkdown() {
   }
   fix = argv.fix;
 
+  const globs = [...argv.glob, ...markdownFiles];
+  if (argv.debug) {
+    console.log('Globs being used:', globs);
+  }
+
   return gulp
-    .src([argv.glob, ...markdownFiles])
+    .src(globs, { followSymlinks: false })
+    .pipe(logFiles(argv.debug))
     .pipe(through2.obj(markdownLintFile))
     .on('end', () => {
       const fileOrFiles = 'file' + (numFilesProcessed == 1 ? '' : 's');
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 67bdf4829ce2..7aa48e43b552 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
     "_check:links--warn": "npm run _check:links || (echo; echo 'WARNING: see link-checker output for issues.'; echo)",
     "_check:links:internal": "npm run __check:links",
     "_check:links": "HTMLTEST_ARGS='--log-level 1' npm run __check:links",
+    "_check:markdown": "npx gulp lint-md",
     "_check:text": "npx textlint content data `ls *.md`",
     "_diff:check": "git diff --name-only --exit-code",
     "_diff:fail": "git diff --name-only --exit-code || exit 1",
@@ -30,7 +31,7 @@
     "_rename-to-kebab-case": "find assets content static -name '*_*' ! -name '_*' -exec sh -c 'mv \"$1\" \"${1//_/-}\"' _ {} \\;",
     "_serve:hugo": "hugo server --buildDrafts --minify",
     "_serve:netlify": "netlify dev -c \"npm run _serve:hugo -- --renderToMemory\"",
-    "_sync": "./scripts/sync-submodules.pl",
+    "_sync": "scripts/sync-submodules.pl",
     "all": "bash -c 'x=0; for c in \"$@\"; do npm run $c || x=$((x+1)); done; ((!x)) || (echo \"ERROR: some scripts failed!\" && exit 1)' -",
     "build:preview": "set -x && npm run _build -- --minify",
     "build:production": "npm run _hugo -- --minify",
@@ -40,7 +41,7 @@
     "check:format": "npm run _check:format || (echo '[help] Run: npm run fix:format'; exit 1)",
     "check:links:internal": "npm run _check:links:internal",
     "check:links": "npm run _check:links",
-    "check:markdown": "npx gulp lint-md",
+    "check:markdown": "scripts/check-markdown-wrapper.sh",
     "check:spelling": "npx cspell --no-progress -c .cspell.yml content data 'layouts/**/*.md'",
     "check:text": "npm run _check:text -- ",
     "check": "npm run seq -- $(npm run -s _list:check:*)",
@@ -48,11 +49,11 @@
     "code-excerpts": "rm -Rf tmp/excerpts/* && npm run seq -- code-excerpts:get code-excerpts:update-docs",
     "code-excerpts:get": "cd tools && dart run build_runner build --delete-conflicting-outputs --output ../tmp/excerpts",
     "code-excerpts:update-docs": "cd tools && dart run code_excerpt_updater --fragment-dir-path ../tmp/excerpts --src-dir-path examples --yaml --write-in-place content",
-    "cp:spec": "./scripts/content-modules/cp-pages.sh",
+    "cp:spec": "scripts/content-modules/cp-pages.sh",
     "diff:check": "npm run _diff:check || (echo; echo 'WARNING: the files above have not been committed'; echo)",
     "diff:fail": "npm run _diff:check || (echo; echo 'ERROR: the files above have changed. Locally rerun `npm run test-and-fix` and commit changes'; echo; exit 1)",
     "fix:all": "npm run seq -- $(npm -s run _list:fix:*)",
-    "fix:dict": "find content layouts -name \"*.md\" -print0 | xargs -0 ./scripts/normalize-cspell-front-matter.pl",
+    "fix:dict": "find content layouts -name \"*.md\" -print0 | xargs -0 scripts/normalize-cspell-front-matter.pl",
     "fix:filenames": "npm run _rename-to-kebab-case",
     "fix:format": "npm run format",
     "fix:i18n": "scripts/i18n-check.sh -u",
@@ -83,7 +84,7 @@
     "serve:hugo": "npm run _serve:hugo -- --renderToMemory",
     "serve:netlify": "npm run _serve:netlify",
     "serve": "npm run serve:hugo --",
-    "sync": "./scripts/sync-submodules.pl",
+    "sync": "scripts/sync-submodules.pl",
     "test-and-fix": "npm run seq -- check fix:dict fix:filenames",
     "test": "npm run check",
     "update:docsy-dep": "npm install --save-dev autoprefixer@latest postcss-cli@latest",
@@ -98,12 +99,12 @@
   "devDependencies": {
     "autoprefixer": "^10.4.19",
     "cspell": "^8.8.4",
-    "gulp": "^4.0.2",
-    "hugo-extended": "0.126.3",
+    "gulp": "^5.0.0",
+    "hugo-extended": "0.127.0",
     "markdown-link-check": "^3.12.2",
     "markdownlint": "^0.34.0",
     "postcss-cli": "^11.0.0",
-    "prettier": "^3.3.0",
+    "prettier": "^3.3.1",
     "require-dir": "^1.2.0",
     "textlint": "^14.0.4",
     "textlint-filter-rule-allowlist": "^4.0.0",
@@ -113,20 +114,20 @@
     "yargs": "^17.7.2"
   },
   "dependencies": {
-    "@opentelemetry/api": "^1.8.0",
-    "@opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-web": "^0.39.0",
-    "@opentelemetry/context-zone": "^1.24.1",
-    "@opentelemetry/core": "^1.24.1",
-    "@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http": "^0.51.1",
-    "@opentelemetry/instrumentation": "^0.51.1",
-    "@opentelemetry/resources": "^1.24.1",
-    "@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base": "^1.24.1",
-    "@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-web": "^1.24.1",
-    "@opentelemetry/semantic-conventions": "^1.24.1",
+    "@opentelemetry/api": "^1.9.0",
+    "@opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-web": "^0.40.0",
+    "@opentelemetry/context-zone": "^1.25.0",
+    "@opentelemetry/core": "^1.25.0",
+    "@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http": "^0.52.0",
+    "@opentelemetry/instrumentation": "^0.52.0",
+    "@opentelemetry/resources": "^1.25.0",
+    "@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base": "^1.25.0",
+    "@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-web": "^1.25.0",
+    "@opentelemetry/semantic-conventions": "^1.25.0",
     "path": "^0.12.7"
   },
   "optionalDependencies": {
-    "netlify-cli": "^17.25.0",
+    "netlify-cli": "^17.26.1",
     "npm-check-updates": "^16.14.20"
   },
   "enginesComment": "Ensure that engines.node value stays consistent with the project's .nvmrc",
diff --git a/scripts/check-markdown-wrapper.sh b/scripts/check-markdown-wrapper.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..045eeed03949
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/check-markdown-wrapper.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+#!/bin/bash -e
+#
+# @chalin can't get Gulp 5 to ignore symlinks, so this wrapper creates
+# bogus symlink targets to make the check:markdown Gulp task happy.
+
+symlink_target="content-modules/opentelemetry-go/example"
+
+if [[ ! -e $symlink_target ]]; then
+  echo "WARNING: required symlink target does not exist, creating it: $symlink_target"
+  (set -x; mkdir -p $symlink_target)
+fi
+
+set -x
+exec npm run _check:markdown "$@"