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Troubleshooting

Browser

Symptom: Chromium not found or launch fails.

Fix: Install Playwright browser binaries for your project:

pnpm exec playwright install chromium

Run a11yst doctor to verify environment readiness.

a11yst does not download browsers during package install.

Target URL and port

Symptom: Navigation timeout or connection refused.

Check Action
Config URL baseUrl or devServer.url must match the running server
Port a11yst does not scan alternate ports if your app moved
Server start Ensure devServer.command works locally first
Reuse With reuseExisting: true, start the server before audit or let a11yst start it

Symptom: Wrong application audited.

Verify origin with a11yst detect and your config file. Use --no-start-server only when the correct server is already listening.

Routes

Symptom: Too few routes audited.

a11yst routes --explain
Cause Fix
Discovery gap Add explicit routes
Dynamic segments Add routeDiscovery.samples
Mode off Only listed routes run

See Framework guides.

Configuration

Symptom: Config not found.

Place a11yst.config.ts in project root or pass --config / --cwd.

Symptom: Validation error on load.

Compare with Configuration reference. Run TypeScript config through your editor for type errors.

CI

Symptom Fix
Exit 2 Policy breach — review findings or baseline
Exit 1 with policy enabled Baseline missing — commit or create baseline
No color in logs Expected with --json or NO_COLOR
Empty GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY Set reports.githubStepSummary and ensure env var exists on GitHub Actions

Reports

Symptom: Missing HTML or Markdown.

Check --no-html, --no-markdown, and config reports.* toggles. Output lives under outputDir (default .a11yst/results/).

Regenerate from saved JSON:

a11yst report --from .a11yst/results/latest.json --format html

Source mapping

Symptom: No likely source on findings.

Cause Detail
sourceAnalysis.enabled: false Re-enable in config
Minified production build Map against dev build or provide source maps
Unsupported file type Mapper may return unmapped
Wrong rootDir Index scans project root scope

Mapping is probabilistic — see Source intelligence limitations.

Getting help

  • Community — issues and contributions welcome
  • a11yst --help and subcommand --help for current flags

There is no commercial support channel or enterprise ticket system.