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Getting Started

This section introduces installation, a first audit, and how to read results.

Introduction

a11yst is a local CLI for web accessibility testing. It combines browser-based checks with a11yst-owned profile rules, then writes structured artifacts you can review, compare, and feed into CI.

Automated checks do not establish accessibility conformance. Manual accessibility review remains necessary.

Installation

Install dependencies in your project, then add a11yst as a development dependency when the package is published. During pre-release development, use a local build or workspace install from this repository.

pnpm add -D @a11yst/cli
pnpm exec playwright install chromium

Chromium is managed by Playwright. a11yst does not download browsers during package installation.

Quick start

Initialize configuration, detect your project, and run an audit:

a11yst init
a11yst detect
a11yst audit

Review terminal output and artifacts under your configured output directory.

Your first audit

Start with a small route set and the default profile. Confirm the dev server or deployed preview URL in a11yst.config.ts matches where your application is reachable.

Understanding results

Findings include severity labels MINOR, MEDIUM, HIGH, and CRITICAL. Severity meaning is never conveyed by color alone—the label is always present in terminal and report output.

Use JSON output for automation and HTML or Markdown for human review.

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