Core concepts overview

a11yst models accessibility work as structured projects and auditable runs.

Projects¶

A project describes where your application lives, which framework adapter to use, how routes are discovered, and which profiles and viewports apply.

Routes are the pages or URLs audited in a run. They can be listed explicitly or discovered from supported frameworks and HTML entry files.

See Route discovery and planning for explicit routes, discovery modes, framework adapters, fallback, audit planning, and a11yst routes --explain.

Viewports define width and height for browser audits. Use them to catch responsive layout and visibility issues.

Profiles apply additional a11yst-owned checks beyond baseline page scans—for example keyboard interaction or large-text conditions.

Flows describe multi-step interactions with checkpoints. They help audit states that only appear after user action.

Checkpoints capture DOM state after actions such as opening a dialog or expanding a menu.

Findings describe accessibility issues with severity, message, and optional remediation guidance.

Evidence may include selectors, snapshots, or other artifacts that support a finding.

Audit runs write structured JSON, reports, and evidence under your configured output directory for review and CI consumption.