diff --git a/src/diagnostics.jl b/src/diagnostics.jl
index c84fa0ac..9a5ea961 100644
--- a/src/diagnostics.jl
+++ b/src/diagnostics.jl
@@ -44,13 +44,26 @@ Base.range(d::Diagnostic) = first_byte(d):last_byte(d)
 
 # Make relative path into a file URL
 function _file_url(filename)
-    @static if Sys.iswindows()
-        # TODO: Test this with windows terminal
-        path = replace(abspath(filename), '\\'=>'/')
-    else
-        path = abspath(filename)
+    try
+        @static if Sys.iswindows()
+            # TODO: Test this with windows terminal
+            path = replace(abspath(filename), '\\'=>'/')
+        else
+            path = abspath(filename)
+        end
+        return "file://$(path)"
+    catch exc
+        # abspath may fail if working directory doesn't exist
+        # TODO: It seems rather non-ideal to have the behavior here depend on
+        # the state of the local filesystem. And yet links in diagnostics seem
+        # useful.
+        #
+        # Ideally it'd be up to the caller to provide some notion of the
+        # "absolute location" of the source code resource when SourceFile is
+        # constructed. This is often not related to the local filesystem - it
+        # could be in memory, a fragment embedded in another file, etc etc.
+        return nothing
     end
-    "file://$(path)"
 end
 
 function show_diagnostic(io::IO, diagnostic::Diagnostic, source::SourceFile)
@@ -64,8 +77,11 @@ function show_diagnostic(io::IO, diagnostic::Diagnostic, source::SourceFile)
     file_href = nothing
     if !isnothing(filename)
         locstr = "$filename:$linecol"
-        if !startswith(filename, "REPL[")
-            file_href = _file_url(filename)*"#$linecol"
+        if !startswith(filename, "REPL[") && get(io, :color, false)
+            url = _file_url(filename)
+            if !isnothing(url)
+                file_href = url*"#$linecol"
+            end
         end
     else
         locstr = "line $linecol"
diff --git a/test/diagnostics.jl b/test/diagnostics.jl
index 423bb882..d9aee625 100644
--- a/test/diagnostics.jl
+++ b/test/diagnostics.jl
@@ -214,4 +214,25 @@ end
         # Error @ line 1:8
         a -- b -- c
         #      └┘ ── invalid operator"""
+
+    stream = JuliaSyntax.ParseStream("a -- b")
+    JuliaSyntax.parse!(stream)
+    fname = "test.jl"
+    sf = SourceFile(stream, filename=fname)
+    url = JuliaSyntax._file_url(fname)
+    @test sprint(JuliaSyntax.show_diagnostics, stream.diagnostics, sf,
+                 context=:color=>true) == """
+        \e[90m# Error @ \e[0;0m\e]8;;$url#1:3\e\\\e[90mtest.jl:1:3\e[0;0m\e]8;;\e\\
+        a \e[48;2;120;70;70m--\e[0;0m b
+        \e[90m# └┘ ── \e[0;0m\e[91minvalid operator\e[0;0m"""
+
+    if Sys.isunix()
+        mktempdir() do tempdirname
+            cd(tempdirname) do
+                rm(tempdirname)
+                # Test _file_url doesn't fail with nonexistant directories
+                @test isnothing(JuliaSyntax._file_url(joinpath("__nonexistant__", "test.jl")))
+            end
+        end
+    end
 end