mcp-a11y

The USB-C port of accessibility: one MCP server that audits any web page against WCAG and applies fixes, drivable from any MCP client (Claude Desktop, etc.).

The problem

Web accessibility is a solved science (WCAG tells you exactly what is broken) but a chronic practice. Every team rebuilds the same audit-and-fix loop, glued to one framework or one CI vendor, behind one proprietary dashboard. The knowledge does not travel.

mcp-a11y turns that loop into a standard interface. Detection stays 100% deterministic (axe-core decides what is broken, never a model). The only place a model is used is to describe images for alt text. Any MCP client can plug in, audit a page, get deterministic fixes back, and open a mergeable PR. That is the thesis: a universal, boring, reliable port for accessibility, not another walled garden.

Related MCP server: aria51 MCP Server

How it works

audit_page  ──►  fix_contrast        ──►  generate_report  ──►  open_pr
(axe-core)       simple_fixes              (before/after)         (controlled repo)
                 generate_alt_text
                 (the only LLM step)

Detection is deterministic. Structural and contrast fixes are deterministic. A vision model is called only for alt text. Fixes are reinjected into the source by CSS selector (not by raw color value), so the patched file is what gets committed.

Tools

Each tool's logic is isolated and testable off-MCP, with no shared state between tools. The deterministic helpers in src/lib are pure (no I/O); audit_page, generate_alt_text, and open_pr perform I/O (browser, model, GitHub) by nature.

Stack

TypeScript end-to-end, ESM, Node 22+. MCP TypeScript SDK 1.x, Playwright + axe-core, Octokit, Anthropic SDK, Zod v3.

Quick start

pnpm install
pnpm exec playwright install chromium
cp .env.example .env   # fill in keys (see Configuration)

Run the MCP server (stdio):

pnpm dev

Inspect it with the MCP Inspector:

pnpm inspect

Run the full demo loop (audit, fix, report) on the bundled broken page:

pnpm exec tsx src/runner/demo.ts demo-site/index.html --report a11y-report.html
# add --alt to also generate alt text (needs ANTHROPIC_API_KEY)
# add --pr  to open a PR on A11Y_TARGET_REPO (needs GITHUB_TOKEN)

For the coherent loop, remediate the file that actually lives in the target repo and re-PR the same path:

pnpm exec tsx src/runner/demo.ts --from-repo index.html --alt --pr

--from-repo <path> fetches that file from A11Y_TARGET_REPO, audits and fixes it, then opens a PR editing the same path (no demo gap: you fix the exact file the repo serves). Scratch files are written to the OS temp dir and removed on exit; only the report stays in the working directory.

Runner options:

Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env:

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=...     # used ONLY by generate_alt_text
GITHUB_TOKEN=...          # used ONLY by open_pr
A11Y_TARGET_REPO=owner/repo   # STRICT guardrail: the only repo open_pr will touch
A11Y_ALT_TEXT_MODEL=claude-haiku-4-5   # optional, defaults to Haiku

The server boots even without keys. Only the tool that needs a key fails, with a clear message.

Use from Claude Desktop

Add this to your Claude Desktop MCP config (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-a11y": {
      "command": "pnpm",
      "args": ["--dir", "/absolute/path/to/mcp-a11y", "dev"]
    }
  }
}

Then ask Claude to audit a URL, fix the issues, and open a PR.

Demo target

demo-site/index.html is an intentionally broken page (images without alt, poor contrast, no lang, form without labels). It is 100% static with zero JavaScript, so the rendered DOM equals the source file, and all colors live in a single <style> block. That invariant is what makes deterministic reinjection of fixes into the source reliable.

For a coherent audit-to-PR loop, run the runner with --from-repo <path>: it fetches that file from A11Y_TARGET_REPO, audits and fixes it, and re-PRs the same path. Relative image URLs are resolved over the raw repo URL so alt text works on a locally audited copy. You fix the exact file the repo serves, with no demo gap.

Guardrail

open_pr never accepts an arbitrary repo. The target comes only from A11Y_TARGET_REPO, validated as exactly owner/repo. Passing a different repo is refused before any network call. This is a controlled demo target by design.

Tests

pnpm test        # node:test via tsx
pnpm typecheck   # tsc on src and test

The deterministic core (contrast math) is unit tested, and the full remediation loop has an end-to-end test (audit, fix, reinject, re-audit clears the violations).

License

MIT