I would like to format an internal link - defined with :ref: - in my documentation using CSS classes.
My problem is that I cannot convert :ref:`Link <internal_link> to the following bit of HTML <a href="internal_link" class="btn btn-primary btn-sm">Link</a>
I've tried defining a new role but that was unsuccessful too.
.. role:: ref
:class: btn btn-sm btn-primary
:ref:`Link <internal_link>`
My current solution is to use raw html and render it as such, but I cannot link the RST files but have to point to the HTML files instead (which doesn't work for PDF output).
.. role:: raw-html(raw)
:format: html
:raw-html:`<a href="internal_link.html" class="btn btn-primary btn-sm">Link</a>`
Does anyone know how to add custom CSS classes to :ref:?