Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.squirrelscan.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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

​
Usage

squirrel audit <url> [options]

​
Arguments

ArgumentDescription
urlThe URL to audit (required)

​
Options

OptionAliasDescriptionDefault
--max-pages-mMaximum pages to crawlvaries by coverage mode
--coverage-CCoverage mode: quick, surface, fullsurface
--format-fOutput format: console, text, json, html, markdown, xml, llmconsole
--output-oOutput file pathauto
--refresh-rIgnore cache, fetch all pages freshfalse
--resumeResume interrupted crawl for this domainfalse
--verbose-vVerbose outputfalse
--debugEnable debug loggingfalse
--traceEnable performance tracingfalse
--project-name-nProject name (overrides config and prompts)auto
--publish-pPublish report to reports.squirrelscan.comfalse
--visibilityVisibility: public, unlisted, privatepublic

​
Coverage Modes

ModeDefault PagesDescription
quick25Fast scan - seed URL + sitemaps only, no link discovery
surface100Smart sampling - one page per URL pattern (default)
full500Comprehensive - crawl everything up to limit
For SARIF format (IDE integration), use the report command after running an audit:
squirrel audit https://example.com
squirrel report <audit-id> --format sarif
See the report command docs for details.

​
Examples

​
Basic Audit

squirrel audit https://example.com

​
Quick Health Check

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

​
Full Comprehensive Audit

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

​
Crawl More Pages

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

​
Export to JSON

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

​
Generate HTML Report

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

​
Fresh Crawl (Ignore Cache)

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

​
Audit and Publish

squirrel audit https://example.com --publish
Publish with unlisted visibility: 
squirrel audit https://example.com --publish --visibility unlisted
Publishing requires authentication. Run squirrel auth login first.

​
Verbose Output

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
Max pages: 500

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

​
Crawl Behavior

The audit command manages crawl sessions intelligently:
ScenarioBehavior
First runCreates new crawl
Re-run (completed)New crawl, uses cache for 304s
Re-run (interrupted)Resumes from where it left off
Config changedNew crawl with fresh scope
Changing scope-affecting config (include, exclude, allow_query_params, drop_query_prefixes) triggers a fresh crawl.

​
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

CodeMeaning
0Success
1Error (invalid URL, crawl failed, etc.)

​
Configuration

The audit command respects settings from squirrel.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: 
squirrel audit https://example.com -f json | claude "analyze this SEO report"
Or use with Claude Code’s MCP integration for interactive auditing.