axe-core Accessibility Audit

Instructions

Tool call template

This tool declares no required parameters. Add optional parameters from the input schema as needed.

{
  "id": 1,
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "arguments": {},
    "name": "axe_audit"
  }
}

Implementation Reference

• src/index.ts:24-25 (registration)

  Registration of the axe_audit tool in the main server setup. The function 'registerAxeAudit' is called with the MCP server instance.

  registerAxeAudit(server);
  registerPageScreenshot(server);

• src/tools/axe-audit.ts:6-27 (schema)

  Input schema for the axe_audit tool defined using Zod: url (optional), html (optional), tags (optional array of strings), selector (optional), timeoutMs (optional positive int).

  const InputShape = {
    url: z
      .string()
      .url()
      .optional()
      .describe("Fully qualified URL to audit. Requires playwright installed."),
    html: z
      .string()
      .optional()
      .describe("Raw HTML string to audit (jsdom, no JS execution)."),
    tags: z
      .array(z.string())
      .optional()
      .describe(
        "axe rule tags to include. Defaults to ['wcag2a','wcag2aa','wcag21a','wcag21aa','wcag22aa','best-practice']."
      ),
    selector: z
      .string()
      .optional()
      .describe("CSS selector to scope the audit (URL mode only)."),
    timeoutMs: z.number().int().positive().optional().describe("Default 15000."),
  };

• src/tools/axe-audit.ts:164-191 (handler)

  Main registration & handler for the 'axe_audit' tool. Registers the tool with title, description, inputSchema, and the async handler function that dispatches to auditUrl or auditHtml based on input, returning summarized results.

  export function registerAxeAudit(server: McpServer) {
    server.registerTool(
      "axe_audit",
      {
        title: "axe-core Accessibility Audit",
        description:
          "Run the axe-core accessibility ruleset against an HTML string (jsdom) or a live URL (Playwright). Returns violations grouped by impact with fix guidance and helpUrl links.",
        inputSchema: InputShape,
      },
      async (args) => {
        const tags = args.tags && args.tags.length ? args.tags : DEFAULT_TAGS;
        const timeoutMs = args.timeoutMs ?? 15000;
        if (!args.url && !args.html) {
          return errorResult("Provide either `url` or `html`.");
        }
        try {
          if (args.url) {
            const res = await auditUrl(args.url, tags, args.selector, timeoutMs);
            return jsonResult(summarize(res, "url", args.url));
          }
          const res = await auditHtml(args.html!, tags);
          return jsonResult(summarize(res, "html", `<${args.html!.length} chars>`));
        } catch (err) {
          return errorResult(err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err));
        }
      }
    );
  }

• src/tools/axe-audit.ts:38-57 (helper)

  TypeScript interfaces (AxeViolation, AxeResults) defining the shape of axe-core audit results.

  interface AxeViolation {
    id: string;
    impact?: string | null;
    help: string;
    helpUrl: string;
    tags: string[];
    nodes: Array<{
      target: string[];
      html: string;
      failureSummary?: string;
    }>;
  }
  
  interface AxeResults {
    violations: AxeViolation[];
    passes: Array<{ id: string }>;
    incomplete: AxeViolation[];
    url?: string;
    timestamp: string;
  }

• src/tools/axe-audit.ts:59-101 (helper)

  Helper to summarize axe-core results: counts of violations by impact, passes, incomplete, and truncated violation details with up to 5 nodes each.

  function summarize(results: AxeResults, mode: "url" | "html", target: string) {
    const byImpact: Record<string, number> = {
      critical: 0,
      serious: 0,
      moderate: 0,
      minor: 0,
      unknown: 0,
    };
    for (const v of results.violations) {
      const k = v.impact ?? "unknown";
      byImpact[k] = (byImpact[k] ?? 0) + 1;
    }
    const totalNodes = results.violations.reduce((n, v) => n + v.nodes.length, 0);
    return {
      mode,
      target,
      summary: {
        violationRules: results.violations.length,
        violatingNodes: totalNodes,
        passedRules: results.passes.length,
        incompleteRules: results.incomplete.length,
        byImpact,
      },
      violations: results.violations.map((v) => ({
        id: v.id,
        impact: v.impact ?? null,
        help: v.help,
        helpUrl: v.helpUrl,
        tags: v.tags,
        nodes: v.nodes.slice(0, 5).map((n) => ({
          target: n.target,
          html: n.html.slice(0, 400),
          failureSummary: n.failureSummary,
        })),
        nodeCount: v.nodes.length,
      })),
      incomplete: results.incomplete.map((v) => ({
        id: v.id,
        help: v.help,
        nodeCount: v.nodes.length,
      })),
    };
  }