audit

Run an audit on a website

The audit command crawls a website and runs SEO rules to generate a report.

Usage

bash

squirrel audit <url> [options]

Arguments

Argument	Description
`url`	The URL to audit (required)

Options

Option	Alias	Description	Default
`--max-pages`	`-m`	Maximum pages to crawl	varies by coverage mode
`--coverage`	`-C`	Coverage mode: `quick`, `surface`, `full`	`surface`
`--format`	`-f`	Output format: `console`, `text`, `json`, `html`, `markdown`, `xml`, `llm`	`console`
`--output`	`-o`	Output file path	auto
`--refresh`	`-r`	Ignore cache, fetch all pages fresh	`false`
`--resume`		Resume interrupted crawl for this domain	`false`
`--verbose`	`-v`	Verbose output	`false`
`--debug`		Enable debug logging	`false`
`--trace`		Enable performance tracing	`false`
`--project-name`	`-n`	Project name (overrides config and prompts)	auto
`--publish`	`-p`	Publish report to reports.squirrelscan.com (costs 2 credits)	`false`
`--visibility`		Visibility: `public`, `unlisted`, `private`	`public`
`--yes`	`-y`	Skip confirmation prompts (e.g. cloud credit spend)	`false`
`--render`		Render pages with a cloud browser for this run (uses credits; requires login)	`false`
`--offline`		Run fully offline: skip cloud features, publishing, and telemetry	`false`

Coverage Modes

Mode	Default Pages	Description
`quick`	25	Fast scan - seed URL + sitemaps only, no link discovery
`surface`	100	Smart sampling - one page per URL pattern (default)
`full`	500	Comprehensive - crawl everything up to limit

For SARIF format (IDE integration), use the report command after running an audit:

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com
squirrel report <audit-id> --format sarif

See the report command docs for details.

Examples

Basic Audit

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com

Quick Health Check

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com -C quick

Full Comprehensive Audit

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com -C full

Crawl More Pages

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com -m 200

Export to JSON

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com -f json -o report.json

Generate HTML Report

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com -f html -o report.html

Fresh Crawl (Ignore Cache)

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com --refresh

Audit and Publish

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com --publish

Publish with unlisted visibility:

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com --publish --visibility unlisted

Fully Offline Audit

Run an audit with zero network calls beyond the site being audited — no cloud analysis, no publishing, no update checks, no telemetry. Results are stored in the local database as usual:

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com --offline

--offline cannot be combined with --publish or --render (both require cloud access and login).

Verbose Output

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com -v

Output Formats

Console (default)

Human-readable output with colored issue severity:

squirrelscan v0.1.0
========================================
Auditing  https://example.com
Coverage  surface · max 100 pages
Config    defaults
Account   you@example.com · 500 credits
Dashboard https://app.squirrelscan.com

Crawled 12 pages

ISSUES

[high] Missing meta description
  → /about
  → /contact

[medium] Image missing alt text
  → /images/hero.png on /

[low] Non-HTTPS link
  → http://oldsite.com on /links

JSON

Machine-readable JSON for CI/CD pipelines and AI processing:

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com -f json -o report.json

json

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "crawledAt": "2025-01-08T00:00:00Z",
  "pages": [...],
  "issues": [...],
  "stats": {
    "totalPages": 12,
    "issueCount": { "high": 2, "medium": 3, "low": 5 }
  }
}

HTML

Visual report you can open in a browser:

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com -f html -o report.html
open report.html

Crawl Behavior

The audit command manages crawl sessions intelligently:

Scenario	Behavior
First run	Creates new crawl
Re-run (completed)	New crawl, uses cache for 304s
Re-run (interrupted)	Resumes from where it left off
Config changed	New crawl with fresh scope

Caching

SquirrelScan caches page content locally. On subsequent audits:

304 Not Modified: Uses cached content (fast)
200 OK: Fetches fresh content (slower)

Use --refresh to bypass the cache entirely.

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
`0`	Success
`1`	Error (invalid URL, crawl failed, etc.)

Configuration

The audit command respects settings from squirrel.toml:

toml

[crawler]
max_pages = 100
delay_ms = 200
timeout_ms = 30000
include = ["/blog/*"]
exclude = ["/admin/*"]

[rules]
enable = ["*"]
disable = ["ai/*"]

See Configuration for all options.

Using with AI

Pipe JSON output to your LLM:

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com -f json | claude "analyze this SEO report"

Or use with Claude Code’s MCP integration for interactive auditing.

Crawling - How the crawler works
Configuration - Config file options
squirrel report - View stored audit reports

Edit this page

Usage

Arguments

Options

Coverage Modes

Examples

Basic Audit

Quick Health Check

Full Comprehensive Audit

Crawl More Pages

Export to JSON

Generate HTML Report

Fresh Crawl (Ignore Cache)

Audit and Publish

Fully Offline Audit

Verbose Output

Output Formats

Console (default)

JSON

HTML

Crawl Behavior

Caching

Exit Codes

Configuration

Using with AI

Related