I couldn't find anyway to just disable the external link, but perhaps you could use an svg, even if it is just text. If you look at the example of the GitHub logo on the Docusaurus site, if you do not have the label, the svg doesn't get applied to it.
docusaurus.config.js
{
// no 'label' property
href: 'https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus',
position: 'right',
className: 'header-github-link',
'aria-label': 'GitHub repository',
},
src/css/custom.css
.header-github-link::before {
content: '';
width: 24px;
height: 24px;
display: flex;
background: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg viewBox='0 0 24 24' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%3E%3Cpath d='M12 .297c-6.63 0-12 5.373-12 12 0 5.303 3.438 9.8 8.205 11.385.6.113.82-.258.82-.577 0-.285-.01-1.04-.015-2.04-3.338.724-4.042-1.61-4.042-1.61C4.422 18.07 3.633 17.7 3.633 17.7c-1.087-.744.084-.729.084-.729 1.205.084 1.838 1.236 1.838 1.236 1.07 1.835 2.809 1.305 3.495.998.108-.776.417-1.305.76-1.605-2.665-.3-5.466-1.332-5.466-5.93 0-1.31.465-2.38 1.235-3.22-.135-.303-.54-1.523.105-3.176 0 0 1.005-.322 3.3 1.23.96-.267 1.98-.399 3-.405 1.02.006 2.04.138 3 .405 2.28-1.552 3.285-1.23 3.285-1.23.645 1.653.24 2.873.12 3.176.765.84 1.23 1.91 1.23 3.22 0 4.61-2.805 5.625-5.475 5.92.42.36.81 1.096.81 2.22 0 1.606-.015 2.896-.015 3.286 0 .315.21.69.825.57C20.565 22.092 24 17.592 24 12.297c0-6.627-5.373-12-12-12'/%3E%3C/svg%3E")
no-repeat;
}
[data-theme='dark'] .header-github-link::before {
background: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg viewBox='0 0 24 24' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%3E%3Cpath fill='white' d='M12 .297c-6.63 0-12 5.373-12 12 0 5.303 3.438 9.8 8.205 11.385.6.113.82-.258.82-.577 0-.285-.01-1.04-.015-2.04-3.338.724-4.042-1.61-4.042-1.61C4.422 18.07 3.633 17.7 3.633 17.7c-1.087-.744.084-.729.084-.729 1.205.084 1.838 1.236 1.838 1.236 1.07 1.835 2.809 1.305 3.495.998.108-.776.417-1.305.76-1.605-2.665-.3-5.466-1.332-5.466-5.93 0-1.31.465-2.38 1.235-3.22-.135-.303-.54-1.523.105-3.176 0 0 1.005-.322 3.3 1.23.96-.267 1.98-.399 3-.405 1.02.006 2.04.138 3 .405 2.28-1.552 3.285-1.23 3.285-1.23.645 1.653.24 2.873.12 3.176.765.84 1.23 1.91 1.23 3.22 0 4.61-2.805 5.625-5.475 5.92.42.36.81 1.096.81 2.22 0 1.606-.015 2.896-.015 3.286 0 .315.21.69.825.57C20.565 22.092 24 17.592 24 12.297c0-6.627-5.373-12-12-12'/%3E%3C/svg%3E")
no-repeat;
}
Update:
Actually, this works, I don't know why I didn't think about it earlier, just set the content value:
.header-search:before {
content: "GitHub";
display: flex;
width: 24px;
height: 24px;
}