wcag-cli

A command-line interface for WCAG 2.2 guidelines, techniques, and glossary — powered by official W3C data.

wcag-cli is a zero-token-cost alternative to the WCAG MCP. It wraps the wcag-guidelines-mcp npm package to bring comprehensive WCAG 2.2 data to your terminal.

Installation

# Global install
npm install -g @rawwee/wcag-cli

# Or run without install
npx @rawwee/wcag-cli <command>

Requirements: Node.js ≥ 18.0.0

Quick Start

# Get details for a specific criterion
wcag get-criterion 1.1.1

# Search for criteria by keyword
wcag search-wcag "keyboard"

# List all techniques for a criterion
wcag get-techniques-for-criterion 2.4.7

# Get all AA-level criteria (including A)
wcag get-criteria-by-level AA --include_lower

# Find failure techniques for a criterion
wcag get-failures-for-criterion 1.4.3

# See what's new in WCAG 2.2
wcag whats-new-in-wcag22

Commands

Core Commands

• list-principles — Lists all four WCAG 2.2 principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.

• list-guidelines — Lists WCAG 2.2 guidelines, optionally filtered by principle number (1-4).

• list-success-criteria — Lists WCAG 2.2 success criteria with optional filters by level (A, AA, AAA), guideline (e.g., "1.1"), or principle (1-4).

• get-success-criteria-detail — Gets the normative success criterion requirements — just the title and exception details without Understanding documentation.

• get-criterion — Gets full details for a specific WCAG success criterion by its reference number.

  • Example: wcag get-criterion 1.1.1

• get-guideline — Gets full details for a specific WCAG guideline including all its success criteria.

• search-wcag — Searches WCAG 2.2 success criteria by keyword in titles and descriptions.

  • Example: wcag search-wcag "keyboard"

• get-criteria-by-level — Gets all success criteria for a specific conformance level. Optionally includes lower levels (e.g., AA includes A).

  • Example: wcag get-criteria-by-level AA --include_lower

• count-criteria — Returns counts of success criteria grouped by level, principle, or guideline.

Techniques Commands

• list-techniques — Lists WCAG techniques, optionally filtered by technology (html, aria, css, pdf, general, etc.) or type (sufficient, advisory, failure).

• get-technique — Gets details for a specific technique by ID.

  • Example: wcag get-technique H37

• get-techniques-for-criterion — Gets all techniques (sufficient, advisory, and failures) for a specific success criterion.

  • Example: wcag get-techniques-for-criterion 2.4.7

• search-techniques — Searches techniques by keyword in titles.

• get-failures-for-criterion — Gets failure techniques (common mistakes) for a specific success criterion.

  • Example: wcag get-failures-for-criterion 1.4.3

Glossary Commands

• get-glossary-term — Gets the definition of a WCAG glossary term.

• list-glossary-terms — Lists all WCAG glossary terms.

• search-glossary — Searches the WCAG glossary by keyword.

Enhanced Commands

• whats-new-in-wcag22 — Lists all success criteria that were added in WCAG 2.2.

  • Example: wcag whats-new-in-wcag22

• get-full-criterion-context — Gets comprehensive context for a success criterion including techniques, test rules, and related glossary terms.

• get-server-info — Returns information about this WCAG MCP server and data source.

Usage

Arguments

The CLI follows a simple argument convention:

• Required arguments are positional and must be provided in the order defined by the command's schema.
• Optional arguments are provided as --flags with values (e.g., --include_lower, --principle 1).

Known limitations:

• Place --flags after positional arguments. A bare boolean flag placed before a positional will consume the positional as its value.
• Positional values starting with - or -- are parsed as flags, not positionals, and are not supported.

Getting Help

# List all available commands
wcag
wcag --help

# Get help for a specific command
wcag <command> --help

# Examples:
wcag get-criterion --help
wcag search-wcag --help
wcag get-criteria-by-level --help

Updating WCAG Data

WCAG data is shipped inside the pinned wcag-guidelines-mcp dependency. To update to newer WCAG data:

1. Bump the wcag-guidelines-mcp version in package.json
2. Run npm install
3. Republish @rawwee/wcag-cli to npm

Attribution

WCAG data © W3C, from the W3C WCAG Repository (https://github.com/w3c/wcag), under the W3C Document License.

The CLI is a wrapper over the wcag-guidelines-mcp npm package by Joe Watkins.

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.