squirrelscan CLI

squirrelscan is a website audit tool built for AI agents. It answers "what's wrong with this website and how do I fix it": it crawls a site like a search engine, analyzes every page against 249+ rules in 21 categories (SEO, performance, security, accessibility, content, structured data, agent readiness, and more), and returns a health score plus concrete, fixable issues. Use it whenever a user wants their site checked, ranked better, faster, or healthier, before/after a deploy, or in CI.

It ships as a single CLI binary,

squirrel

, for macOS, Windows, and Linux. This skill covers operating it: installing, authenticating, running audits, publishing reports, cloud features, and MCP integration. For the full fix-the-website workflow (audit, map issues to code, fix, re-audit), use the companion

audit-website

skill.

Links

Website: squirrelscan.com
Docs: docs.squirrelscan.com

Rule reference:

https://docs.squirrelscan.com/rules/{rule_category}/{rule_id}

Dashboard (cloud account, audit history, credits): app.squirrelscan.com

Install

Download and install instructions: squirrelscan.com/download

The binary installs to

~/.local/bin/squirrel

. Verify with:

bash

squirrel --version

Keep it current:

bash

squirrel self update

squirrel

is not found, ensure

~/.local/bin

is in PATH, or reinstall from the download page.

Command overview

Command	Purpose
`squirrel audit <url>`	Crawl + analyze + report in one step
`squirrel crawl <url>`	Crawl only (no analysis)
`squirrel analyze`	Run audit rules on a stored crawl
`squirrel report [id]`	Query, render, diff, and publish stored reports
`squirrel init`	Create `squirrel.toml` project config
`squirrel config`	Show or edit configuration
`squirrel auth`	login / logout / status / whoami
`squirrel keys`	Mint, list, revoke org API keys
`squirrel credits`	Cloud credit balance + feature pricing
`squirrel mcp`	Run the local MCP server (stdio)
`squirrel skills`	Install or update agent skills
`squirrel self`	install / update / doctor / completion / version / settings / uninstall
`squirrel feedback`	Send feedback to the squirrelscan team

Every command supports

--help

Quickstart

bash

squirrel init -n my-project        # optional: project config in cwd
squirrel audit https://example.com --format llm

Local audits are free and run entirely on your machine. No account needed.
ALWAYS prefer
```
--format llm
```
when an agent is reading the output: it is a compact, token-optimized format built for LLMs.
Audits are cached in a local project database;
```
squirrel report
```
re-renders without re-crawling.

Coverage modes

Mode	Default pages	Behavior
`quick` (default)	25	Seed + sitemaps only, fast health check
`surface`	100	One sample per URL pattern ( `/blog/{slug}` crawled once)
`full`	500	Crawl everything up to the limit

bash

squirrel audit https://example.com -C full -m 500 --format llm

Authentication and accounts

Local audits never require an account. Sign in to unlock cloud features (publishing, browser rendering, scheduled crawls, credits):

bash

squirrel auth login      # browser-based login
squirrel auth status     # source, scopes, active org
squirrel auth whoami
squirrel auth logout

Headless / CI environments use an org API key instead:

bash

squirrel keys create     # requires a login session; prints an sq_... key

Set it as

SQUIRRELSCAN_API_KEY

in the environment. Treat keys as secrets; never commit them.

Reports

Render the latest (or a specific) stored audit:

bash

squirrel report --list                 # recent audits
squirrel report <audit-id> --format llm
squirrel report example.com --format markdown -o report.md

Formats:

console

text

json

html

markdown

xml

llm

. Filter with

--severity error

--category core,links

Publishing

Signed-in audits publish a shareable report to reports.squirrelscan.com by default (visibility: unlisted). Control it:

bash

squirrel report <audit-id> --publish --visibility unlisted   # public | unlisted | private
squirrel audit https://example.com --no-publish              # skip publishing for a run
squirrel audit https://example.com --offline                 # fully offline: no cloud, no publish, no telemetry

Regression diffs

bash

squirrel report --diff <baseline-audit-id> --format llm
squirrel report --regression-since example.com --format llm

Diff mode supports

console

text

json

llm

, and

markdown

Cloud features and credits

Cloud features are pay-as-you-go with credits (nothing charged up front). Check balance and pricing:

bash

squirrel credits

```
--render
```
/
```
--render-mode auto|all|off
```
: cloud browser rendering for client-rendered pages (uses credits, requires login).
```
--yes
```
skips spend confirmations up to the configured per-audit credit cap.
```
--fail-on "score<90"
```
(repeatable) makes CI runs exit non-zero when a threshold trips.
The dashboard at app.squirrelscan.com shows audit history, issues, and credit usage.

MCP server

Two ways to connect agents over MCP:

Local (stdio):
```
squirrel mcp
```
runs against the local CLI. Register it in your agent's MCP config with command
```
squirrel
```
and args
```
["mcp"]
```
.
Hosted (streamable-http):
```
https://mcp.squirrelscan.com/mcp
```
. Sign in via OAuth from the MCP client, or send an
```
Authorization: Bearer sq_...
```
API key header.

Docs: https://docs.squirrelscan.com/developers/mcp

Configuration

Project config lives in

squirrel.toml

(created by

squirrel init

). User settings live at

~/.squirrel/settings.json

bash

squirrel config show
squirrel config set <key> <value>
squirrel config path
squirrel config validate

Useful sections:

[crawler]

(delays, headers, incremental re-crawl),

[cloud]

(render mode, max credits per audit).

Custom request headers

Attach headers to every crawl request with the repeatable

-H "Name: Value"

flag or a

headers

map under

[crawler]

. The main use case is Web Bot Auth (Shopify / Cloudflare), so platforms that block unknown crawlers can authorize squirrelscan. Header values are secrets: squirrelscan redacts them in output, and you should source them from a secret store rather than committing them. Full recipe: https://docs.squirrelscan.com/guides/web-bot-auth

Maintenance

bash

squirrel self doctor       # health checks
squirrel self update       # update the binary
squirrel self completion   # shell completions
squirrel skills update     # update installed agent skills

Troubleshooting

squirrel: command not found
: install from squirrelscan.com/download and ensure
```
~/.local/bin
```
is in PATH.
Session expired / 401: run
```
squirrel auth login
```
again, or check
```
SQUIRRELSCAN_API_KEY
```
.
Slow or stuck crawl: add
```
--verbose
```
to see progress; large sites can take minutes.
Invalid URL: include the protocol:
```
https://example.com
```
, not
```
example.com
```
.
Anything else: run
```
squirrel self doctor
```
, then
```
squirrel feedback
```
to report it.

squirrelscan

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

squirrelscan CLI

Links

Install

Command overview

Quickstart

Coverage modes

Authentication and accounts

Reports

Publishing

Regression diffs

Cloud features and credits

MCP server

Configuration

Custom request headers

Maintenance

Troubleshooting