Directory tree

.
├── bibliography.bib
├── Makefile
├── reference
│   └── test_reference.tex
└── test.tex

File Contents

bibliography.bib

@misc{
  reference,
  title={Reference title},
  author={Reference author},
  note={href{run:reference/test_reference.pdf}{local file}}
}

Makefile

all: make_reference make_pdflatex make_bibtex make_pdflatex make_pdflatex
make_pdflatex:
        pdflatex test.tex
make_bibtex:
        bibtex test.aux
make_reference:
        pdflatex -output-directory=reference reference/test_reference.tex

reference/test_reference.tex

documentclass{article}
begin{document}
I am the reference document
end{document}

test.tex

documentclass{article}
usepackage{cite}
usepackage{hyperref}

begin{document}
Blablabla said Nobody ~cite{reference}

clearpage
bibliographystyle{plain}
bibliography{bibliography}

end{document}

Problem

When I run make all, the pdfs successfully compile, however when I open the pdf in Sumatra and try to access the local link it shows an error:

File wsl$Ubuntuhomeusernamecodeusernamelatex_se_questionfile:referencetest_reference.pdf not found

I can tell the path is wrong, which is why it fails to locate the file. However I don’t understand why this occurs since I am providing an existing path in my .bib file.

What am I doing wrong here?