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The [output] section controls how squirrelscan formats and saves audit reports.

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Configuration

[output]
format = "console"
path = ""

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Options

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format

Type: "console" | "json" | "html" Default: "console" Output format for audit reports. Available Formats:
  • "console" - Rich terminal output with colors and formatting
  • "json" - Machine-readable JSON for automation
  • "html" - Interactive HTML report in browser

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"console" (Default)

Rich terminal output optimized for human readability. Features:
  • Colored output (red/yellow/green for fail/warn/pass)
  • Progress indicators during crawl
  • Summary statistics
  • Issue grouping by rule
  • Interactive formatting
Example output: 
🔍 Crawling https://example.com...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✓ Fetched 100 pages in 12.3s

📊 Running audit rules...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ISSUES FOUND (23)

❌ core/meta-title (8 pages)
  /about - Missing page title
  /contact - Title too short (12 chars, min 30)

⚠️  links/broken-links (15 links)
  /blog/post-1 → /missing-page (404)

✓ All other checks passed

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Health Score: 78/100 (Good)
Configuration: 
[output]
format = "console"
Use cases:
  • Local development
  • Manual audits
  • Terminal-based workflows
  • Quick visual feedback

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"json"

Machine-readable JSON output for automation and integrations. Features:
  • Complete crawl data
  • All rule results
  • Structured error information
  • Health score calculation
  • Timestamps and metadata
Example structure: 
{
  "project": {
    "name": "example.com",
    "seedUrl": "https://example.com",
    "timestamp": "2026-01-17T10:30:00.000Z"
  },
  "stats": {
    "totalPages": 100,
    "totalLinks": 456,
    "totalImages": 234,
    "crawlDurationMs": 12345
  },
  "health": {
    "score": 78,
    "grade": "Good",
    "issues": {
      "error": 8,
      "warning": 15,
      "info": 12
    }
  },
  "pages": [
    {
      "url": "https://example.com/about",
      "status": 200,
      "title": "About Us",
      "checks": [...]
    }
  ],
  "rules": [...],
  "links": [...],
  "images": [...]
}
Configuration: 
[output]
format = "json"
path = "reports/audit.json"  # Optional: save to file
Use cases:
  • CI/CD pipelines
  • Automated testing
  • Data analysis
  • Integration with other tools
  • API responses
CLI usage: 
# Output to stdout
squirrel audit https://example.com --format json

# Save to file
squirrel audit https://example.com --format json --output report.json

# Pipe to jq for filtering
squirrel audit https://example.com --format json | jq '.health.score'

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"html"

Interactive HTML report that opens in your browser. Features:
  • Visual charts and graphs
  • Filterable issue list
  • Page-by-page breakdown
  • Click-to-navigate
  • Responsive design
  • Shareable standalone file
Includes:
  • Health score gauge
  • Issue distribution charts
  • Rule category breakdown
  • Page list with status
  • Link analysis graphs
  • Image optimization metrics
Configuration: 
[output]
format = "html"
path = "reports/audit.html"  # Optional: custom path
Default behavior: If path is not specified, HTML report is saved to: 
reports/audit-{timestamp}.html
Use cases:
  • Client presentations
  • Team sharing
  • Visual analysis
  • Stakeholder reports
  • Archive audits
CLI usage: 
# Generate and open in browser
squirrel audit https://example.com --format html

# Save to custom location
squirrel audit https://example.com --format html --output reports/my-audit.html

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path

Type: string Default: "" (empty = stdout for console/json, auto-generate for html) Required: No Output file path for saving reports. Behavior: Empty (default):
  • console format → stdout (terminal)
  • json format → stdout
  • html format → reports/audit-{timestamp}.html
Specified:
  • Saves to exact path provided
  • Creates directories if needed
  • Overwrites existing files
Examples: Save JSON to file: 
[output]
format = "json"
path = "reports/latest.json"
Save HTML with custom name: 
[output]
format = "html"
path = "audit-reports/example-com-2026-01-17.html"
Console to file (unusual): 
[output]
format = "console"
path = "logs/audit.log"
Path expansion: Relative paths are relative to current working directory: 
[output]
path = "reports/audit.json"
# Resolves to: /path/to/project/reports/audit.json
Absolute paths work too: 
[output]
path = "/Users/you/audits/report.json"
Directory creation: squirrelscan automatically creates parent directories: 
[output]
path = "reports/2026/january/audit.json"
# Creates reports/2026/january/ if needed

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Configuration Examples

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Console Output (Default)

Terminal output with colors: 
[output]
format = "console"
Run: 
squirrel audit https://example.com

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JSON for CI/CD

Save JSON report for automated testing: 
[output]
format = "json"
path = "reports/audit.json"
Then in CI: 
squirrel audit https://staging.example.com
cat reports/audit.json | jq '.health.score'

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HTML for Sharing

Generate shareable HTML report: 
[output]
format = "html"
path = "reports/client-audit.html"
Share the file: 
squirrel audit https://client.com
# Send reports/client-audit.html to client

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Multiple Outputs

Use CLI to generate multiple formats: 
# Console output
squirrel audit https://example.com

# JSON for automation
squirrel audit https://example.com --format json --output reports/data.json

# HTML for sharing
squirrel audit https://example.com --format html --output reports/visual.html

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CLI Override

CLI flags override config file: Config file: 
[output]
format = "console"
path = "reports/default.json"
CLI override: 
squirrel audit https://example.com --format json --output custom.json
# Uses: format=json, path=custom.json
Precedence:
  1. CLI flags (--format, --output) - Highest
  2. Config file ([output] section)
  3. Built-in defaults - Lowest

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Format Comparison

FeatureConsoleJSONHTML
Human readable✓✗✓
Machine readable✗✓✗
Colors✓✗✓
Interactive✗✗✓
Shareable✗✓✓
CI/CD friendly✗✓✗
Charts/graphs✗✗✓
File sizeSmallMediumLarge
Parse complexityN/AEasyMedium

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Output Schema

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JSON Output Schema

Full JSON output structure: 
{
  "project": {
    "name": "string",
    "seedUrl": "string",
    "timestamp": "ISO 8601 date",
    "config": {
      "maxPages": 500,
      "rules": {...}
    }
  },
  "stats": {
    "totalPages": 0,
    "totalLinks": 0,
    "totalImages": 0,
    "crawlDurationMs": 0,
    "externalLinksChecked": 0
  },
  "health": {
    "score": 0,
    "grade": "Excellent|Good|Fair|Poor|Critical",
    "issues": {
      "error": 0,
      "warning": 0,
      "info": 0
    }
  },
  "pages": [
    {
      "url": "string",
      "status": 200,
      "title": "string",
      "description": "string",
      "wordCount": 0,
      "checks": [
        {
          "ruleId": "core/meta-title",
          "name": "meta-title",
          "status": "pass|warn|fail|info|skipped",
          "message": "string",
          "value": "any",
          "expected": "any"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "ruleResults": [...],
  "links": [...],
  "images": [...]
}
Use for:
  • Automated analysis
  • Data warehousing
  • Custom reporting
  • Integration testing

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HTML Report Structure

HTML reports include: 1. Overview Section
  • Health score gauge
  • Total pages/links/images
  • Crawl duration
  • Issue count by severity
2. Issues Section
  • Grouped by rule
  • Sorted by severity
  • Expandable details
  • Quick filters
3. Pages Section
  • Full page list
  • Status codes
  • Title/description
  • Check results per page
4. Rules Section
  • All rules run
  • Pass/fail counts
  • Category breakdown
5. Links Section
  • Internal link graph
  • Broken links list
  • Redirect chains
  • External links
6. Images Section
  • Image list with previews
  • Missing alt text
  • File size analysis
  • Format recommendations

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Automation Examples

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CI/CD Pipeline

Extract health score in CI: 
# .github/workflows/audit.yml
- name: Run Audit
  run: squirrel audit https://staging.example.com --format json --output audit.json

- name: Check Score
  run: |
    SCORE=$(cat audit.json | jq '.health.score')
    if [ "$SCORE" -lt 70 ]; then
      echo "Health score too low: $SCORE"
      exit 1
    fi

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Compare Audits

Compare two audits using JSON: 
# Before changes
squirrel audit https://example.com --format json --output before.json

# Make changes...

# After changes
squirrel audit https://example.com --format json --output after.json

# Compare scores
echo "Before: $(cat before.json | jq '.health.score')"
echo "After:  $(cat after.json | jq '.health.score')"

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Generate Multiple Reports

Run once, output multiple formats: 
#!/bin/bash
URL="https://example.com"
DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)

# JSON for data
squirrel audit $URL --format json --output "reports/$DATE/data.json"

# HTML for sharing
squirrel audit $URL --format html --output "reports/$DATE/report.html"

# Console for logs
squirrel audit $URL > "logs/$DATE.log"

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Troubleshooting

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HTML not opening in browser

Solution: Open manually: 
squirrel audit https://example.com --format html --output report.html
open report.html  # macOS
xdg-open report.html  # Linux

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JSON output too large

Cause: Large sites generate large JSON files Solution: Use console format or filter JSON: 
# Get only health score
squirrel audit https://example.com --format json | jq '.health'

# Get only errors
squirrel audit https://example.com --format json | jq '.pages[].checks[] | select(.status == "fail")'

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Path permission denied

Cause: No write permission to output directory Solution: Use writable directory or fix permissions: 
[output]
path = "~/reports/audit.json"  # Home directory
Or: 
mkdir -p reports
chmod 755 reports

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Complete Example

[project]
name = "mysite"

[crawler]
max_pages = 500

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

[output]
# Default to console for development
format = "console"

# Override with CLI for CI/CD:
# --format json --output reports/audit.json
Local development: 
squirrel audit https://localhost:3000
# Console output to terminal
CI/CD: 
squirrel audit https://staging.example.com --format json --output audit.json
# JSON saved to file for analysis
Client report: 
squirrel audit https://client.com --format html --output reports/client-audit.html
# HTML report for sharing