Reliability audit rules: broken scripts, fonts and forms
Audit rules for what fails to load: scripts, stylesheets and fonts that return errors, and forms whose fields or actions lose submissions.
Reliability rules check that what a page asks the browser to load actually loads, and that a form’s submission reaches a handler. They read the scripts, stylesheets and fonts the crawl already fetched, so a bundle that returns 404 after a deploy shows up even when the HTML that references it is a 200. The category sits in the Performance score group, since a page whose main script never loads is slow to become usable, and the rules need no browser render.
Run only these rules
squirrel audit https://example.com --rule-include reliabilityReliability and Performance make up the Performance score group. Run both with --rule-include perf,reliability.
Where to start
These carry the highest severity and weight in the category.
- Broken scripts, stylesheets and fonts: files that do not load: A page whose script or stylesheet returns 404 or 500 looks fine to a crawler but renders unstyled or never runs its interactive parts. squirrel checks every script, stylesheet and font the crawl fetched.
- Forms that lose submissions: unnamed fields and dead actions: A form can look perfect and still drop every submission. squirrel checks that each field has a name the browser sends, and that each form action answers.
Rules
| Rule | What it flags | Severity | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broken scripts, stylesheets and fonts: files that do not load | A page whose script or stylesheet returns 404 or 500 looks fine to a crawler but renders unstyled or never runs its interactive parts. squirrel checks every script, stylesheet and font the crawl fetched. | error | Site-wide |
| Forms that lose submissions: unnamed fields and dead actions | A form can look perfect and still drop every submission. squirrel checks that each field has a name the browser sends, and that each form action answers. | error | Site-wide |
Key terms
- HTTP status code: The three-digit code a server returns with every response; 2xx success, 3xx redirect, 4xx client error, 5xx server error.
Related categories
Performance covers how fast the same resources load. Images checks image sources, and Links checks link targets that return errors.
Learn more
- Fix SEO issues with AI, the coding agent workflow for working through a report
- Website audit tool
- Sample report, with the Reliability section on a real site
Disable all Reliability rules
[rules]
disable = ["reliability/*"]