web-scanning

Web Scanning

Supported Audit Methods

Method	Tool	When to Use
Runtime scan	axe-core CLI	Live URL available (dev server or production)
Code review	Agent specialists	Source code available in workspace
Both	axe-core + agents	Most comprehensive - catches issues from both angles

Runtime Scanning Commands

axe-core CLI

# Single page scan (WCAG 2.2 AA)
npx @axe-core/cli <URL> --tags wcag2a,wcag2aa,wcag21a,wcag21aa

# Save results to JSON
npx @axe-core/cli <URL> --tags wcag2a,wcag2aa,wcag21a,wcag21aa --save ACCESSIBILITY-SCAN.json

# Multiple pages
npx @axe-core/cli <URL1> <URL2> <URL3> --tags wcag2a,wcag2aa,wcag21a,wcag21aa --save ACCESSIBILITY-SCAN.json

# With Chrome flags (headless)
npx @axe-core/cli <URL> --tags wcag2a,wcag2aa,wcag21a,wcag21aa --chrome-flags="--headless --no-sandbox"

axe-core Tag Reference

Tag	Standard
wcag2a	WCAG 2.0 Level A
wcag2aa	WCAG 2.0 Level AA
wcag21a	WCAG 2.1 Level A
wcag21aa	WCAG 2.1 Level AA
wcag22aa	WCAG 2.2 Level AA
best-practice	Best practices (not WCAG required)

Screenshot Capture

capture-website-cli (preferred - lightweight)

# Full-page screenshot
npx capture-website-cli "<URL>" --output="screenshots/<page>.png" --full-page --type=png

# With viewport
npx capture-website-cli "<URL>" --output="screenshots/<page>.png" --full-page --width=1280 --height=720

# Mobile viewport
npx capture-website-cli "<URL>" --output="screenshots/<page>-mobile.png" --full-page --width=375 --height=812

# With delay for JS-rendered content
npx capture-website-cli "<URL>" --output="screenshots/<page>.png" --full-page --delay=3

Playwright (fallback)

npx playwright screenshot --browser chromium --full-page --wait-for-timeout 3000 "<URL>" "screenshots/<page>.png"

Page Discovery for Multi-Page Audits

Crawl Depth Modes

Mode	Behavior	Max Pages
Current page only	Scan single URL	1
Key pages	User-provided list	User-defined
Full site crawl	Follow internal links	50 (default cap)

Sitemap-based Discovery

# Check for sitemap
curl -s <BASE_URL>/sitemap.xml | head -20

# Extract URLs from sitemap
curl -s <BASE_URL>/sitemap.xml | grep -oP '<loc>\K[^<]+' | head -50

Link-based Crawling

When crawling from a start URL:

• Follow only same-domain links
• Skip anchor links (#), mailto:, tel:, javascript: links
• Skip file downloads (.pdf, .zip, .doc, etc.)
• Respect robots.txt
• Cap at 50 pages unless user overrides
• Track visited URLs to avoid duplicates

Framework Detection

Detect the framework from workspace files to enable framework-specific scanning:

Indicator	Framework
package.json contains react	React
package.json contains next	Next.js
package.json contains vue	Vue
package.json contains @angular/core	Angular
package.json contains svelte	Svelte
.jsx / .tsx files present	React/Next.js
.vue files present	Vue
angular.json present	Angular
.svelte files present	Svelte
Only .html files	Vanilla HTML

Source Code File Patterns

When doing code review, scan these file patterns:

# HTML files
**/*.html

# Component files (framework-specific)
**/*.jsx
**/*.tsx
**/*.vue
**/*.svelte
**/*.component.ts
**/*.component.html

# Style files (for contrast/visual checks)
**/*.css
**/*.scss
**/*.less
**/*.module.css

# Config files (for framework detection)
package.json
next.config.*
nuxt.config.*
angular.json
svelte.config.*
tailwind.config.*

Scan Configuration

Web Scan Config File: .a11y-web-config.json

{
  "profile": "standard",
  "wcagLevel": "AA",
  "wcagVersion": "2.2",
  "axeTags": ["wcag2a", "wcag2aa", "wcag21a", "wcag21aa"],
  "maxPages": 50,
  "screenshots": false,
  "framework": "auto",
  "ignore": {
    "paths": ["node_modules/**", "dist/**", "build/**", ".next/**"],
    "rules": []
  }
}

Scan Profiles

Profile	Phases	Thoroughness
Quick	1, 3, 4, 9	Errors and critical only
Standard	All (1-9)	Errors and warnings
Deep	All + extras	All severities + animation, cognitive, touch