Output Formats

After a scan completes, Vesper Audit writes its results to your configured output folder. This page documents every output file and format.

Output folder structure

Each scan creates a timestamped folder inside your output folder. Export files are written to format-specific subfolders inside it:

After a scan, the Open Folder button on the result card opens the audit root folder so you can see all outputs at once.

The output folder defaults to ~/Desktop/Vesper-Audits and can be changed in Settings > Output Folder.

Results JSON file

After every scan, Vesper Audit automatically writes a .json results file to the audit root folder. This happens on all plans and cannot be disabled.

The JSON file is the data source for the in-app report viewer. It contains the complete structured results of the scan: every page audited, every violation found, impact levels, WCAG references, affected elements, and scan metadata.

To open a results file from a previous scan, use Open Report... in the Reports tab toolbar.

PDF report

The PDF report is a formatted, print-ready document suited for delivery to clients or stakeholders.

The PDF contains:

• A cover page with the site name, scan date, auditor name (if set), and a summary of findings by severity
• A violations section listing every affected page with its violations, impact badges, WCAG references, and affected elements
• A PDFs found section (when PDF scanning is enabled and PDFs were found)
• A broken links section (when broken link checking is enabled and broken links were found)

The PDF is generated using Electron's native print-to-PDF capability. No external dependencies are required.

Markdown export

The Markdown export produces a complete audit report in .md format, written to the markdown/ subfolder. It contains the same content as the PDF - cover section, violations per page, broken links, and PDFs found - in a format suitable for documentation systems and version control.

Good for: pasting into Confluence, GitHub wikis, Notion, or any tool that renders Markdown. If auditor name is set in Settings, it appears in the report header.

CSV export

The CSV export writes two files to the csv/ subfolder:

• violations.csv - one row per violation. Columns: page URL, rule ID, impact level, WCAG criterion, description, affected HTML element.
• summary.csv - one row per audited page. Columns: page URL, violation count by severity (critical, serious, moderate, minor).

Both files import directly into Excel or Google Sheets for further analysis or tracking over time.

In-App Report Viewer

The Reports tab in Vesper Audit lets you browse scan results without opening any external app. Available on all plans including free.

After every scan, click Open in Viewer on the result card to open the Reports tab with your results loaded automatically.

The viewer sidebar lists all scanned pages sorted by violation count, with clean pages at the bottom. Clicking a page shows all violations found on that page, including impact level, WCAG criterion link, fix guidance, and affected HTML elements. Where a Vesper Guide exists for the violation rule, a guide link appears in the card. Page URLs are clickable and open the live page in your browser.

To open results from a previous scan, click Open Report... in the Reports tab toolbar and select any .json results file. See In-App Report Viewer for full documentation.

Notion output

When Notion export is enabled, Vesper Audit creates a structured set of pages under your configured Notion parent page after each scan:

Your Notion Parent Page
  Audit: example.com - April 25, 2026
    Audit Report
    PDFs Found (N)        ← only created when PDFs are present
    Broken Links (N)      ← only created when broken links are found
    Audit Log
    Suppressed Errors     ← only created when suppressions matched

Notion sync runs in the background after a scan completes. A sync strip in the Audit panel shows progress - you can start a new audit while a previous sync is still running. See Notion Integration for setup instructions.

Custom checks

In addition to axe-core, Vesper Audit runs three built-in checks on every page that axe-core does not cover.

Ambiguous link text (vesper-ambiguous-link, moderate) - Flags links whose accessible name falls into any of the following categories:

• Generic phrase - accessible name matches a known ambiguous phrase: "click here", "here", "read more", "more", "learn more", "see more", "view more", "find out more", "details", "info", "information", "continue", "download", and similar.
• Raw URL - accessible name starts with http://, https://, or www.. Screen readers announce raw URLs character by character, which is disorienting.
• Raw phone number - a tel: link whose accessible name consists only of digits, spaces, dashes, dots, parentheses, and plus signs with no descriptive text.
• Raw email address - a mailto: link whose accessible name is a bare email address with no descriptive text.

Both map to WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) - Level A (opens in a new tab).

Duplicate link text to different destinations (vesper-duplicate-link-text, serious) - Flags groups of links on the same page that share an identical accessible name but point to different URLs. Links that share an accessible name and a destination are not flagged. Also maps to WCAG 2.4.4.

Empty heading (vesper-empty-heading, moderate) - Flags <h1> through <h6> elements whose accessible name is empty or consists only of whitespace. Empty headings create phantom structure: screen readers announce that a heading exists but read nothing aloud. Maps to WCAG 2.4.6 Headings and Labels - Level AA (opens in a new tab).

Configuring which outputs are generated

You can control output formats in the Scanner Options section on the Audit panel:

• Toggle WCAG violations scan on/off (Free)
• Toggle best practices scan on/off (Free)
• Page load timeout (Free)
• Toggle PDF export on/off (Supporter)
• Toggle Markdown export on/off (Supporter)
• Toggle CSV export on/off (Supporter)
• Toggle PDF scanner on/off (Supporter)
• Toggle broken links check on/off (Supporter)
• Toggle Notion export on/off (Supporter)
• Viewport width (Supporter)

For auditor name and report attribution settings, see Scan Settings.

The results JSON file is always written after every scan and cannot be disabled.

Report Filter

The Report Filter badge row in Scanner Options lets you narrow the accessibility output to one or more rule categories. All rules is the default and runs everything. Selecting one or more categories - Links, Images, Forms, Color & contrast, Page structure, or Keyboard & focus - limits the violations in every output to only those rule categories.

All axe-core rules still run during the scan. The filter is applied after the crawl, before results are written to any output format. Violation counts in the summary, PDF, Notion, and viewer all reflect the filtered set.

When a filter is active, every output is clearly labeled:

• PDF - an amber "Filtered: [categories]" badge appears on the cover alongside the WCAG 2.2 A/AA and audit type badges; a Rules row is added to the scope strip at the bottom of the cover page.
• Notion - a yellow callout block appears near the top of the parent audit page noting which rule categories were active.
• In-app viewer - an amber notice bar appears below the viewer toolbar when a filtered report is loaded.

The filter selection persists between sessions. Selecting all six categories is treated the same as All rules and reverts automatically.

Scan mode

Vesper Audit supports two scan modes, selectable above the Run button on the Audit panel:

• Full Site - the crawler starts at your URL and follows all internal links, auditing every page it finds. Requires a Supporter license or active trial.
• Single Page - audits only the URL you enter. No link following. Available on all plans including free.

PDF collection and broken link checking still run in Single Page mode, scoped to the one page being audited. The mode you choose persists across sessions.

Output folder location

The default output folder is ~/Desktop/Vesper-Audits. You can change this in Settings > Output Folder. The folder is created automatically if it does not exist.