Release Notes

v1.0.0-beta.32 May 17, 2026

Two long-standing Pattern Detector bugs are fixed in this build. Clicking Apply on a Pattern card during a scan now removes the card and prunes the queue as intended. Scans no longer cascade into hundreds of wasted iterations when a single page hits a fatal browser frame error - the scan recovers cleanly and continues from the next URL in the queue. Pattern cards also now appear at the threshold count of 25 rather than jumping straight to a post-batch number.

v1.0.0 April 24, 2026

Vesper Audit is a macOS desktop application for automated WCAG 2.2 A/AA accessibility auditing. Provide a starting URL and Vesper Audit produces a complete site-wide report.

Scanning

• Full site crawl. Vesper Audit follows every internal link from your starting URL and audits every page it finds - no sitemap required, no page limit. A running log shows each page as it is scanned.
• Single Page mode. Audit one URL without crawling. Useful for quick spot-checks on a specific page before or after making changes.
• WCAG 2.2 A/AA checks via axe-core. Every page is checked against the full axe-core rule set. Violations and best-practices are reported separately, each with its WCAG criterion reference.
• Custom link text checks. Two checks axe-core does not cover: ambiguous link text (click here, read more, details, raw URLs) and duplicate link text pointing to different destinations. Both map to WCAG 2.4.4 Level A.
• Empty heading detection. Flags headings whose accessible name resolves to nothing - broken aria-labelledby references, empty aria-label, or genuinely empty elements. Maps to WCAG 2.4.6.
• PDF and broken link scanning. All PDF links and external URLs are collected during the crawl. HTTP HEAD checks run after the scan and flag anything returning an error status.
• Report Filter. Narrow a scan to one rule category: Links, Images, Forms, Color & contrast, Page structure, or Keyboard & focus. Run a focused report for a specific person or remediation sprint, then rescan to confirm the fix.

Reports and exports

• In-app report viewer. After every scan, results open immediately in the Reports tab - no file picker, no PDF required. Pages are sorted by violation count. Each violation shows its impact level, WCAG criterion, affected HTML element, and a direct link to the relevant Vesper Guide.
• PDF export. A fully styled, print-ready report with a cover page, summary grid, violations per page, PDFs found, and broken links. Auditor name appears on the cover if set. Generated natively with no external dependencies.
• Markdown export. The full audit in .md format. Paste into Confluence, GitHub, Notion, or any Markdown-rendering tool.
• CSV export. Two files per audit: violations.csv with one row per violation (rule ID, impact, WCAG criterion, page URL, affected element) and summary.csv with per-page counts. Compatible with Excel, Numbers, and Google Sheets.
• Notion sync. Publishes a structured page hierarchy to your Notion workspace after each scan: Audit Report, PDFs Found, Broken Links, Audit Log, and Suppressed Errors. Sync runs in the background.

Settings and workflow

• Scan profiles. Save named configurations per client. One click restores the URL, scan mode, exclusions, suppressions, export formats, and report filter for that site. Export and import profiles as JSON.
• Violation suppressions. Hide known false positives or accepted risks from output. The raw audit data is preserved and suppressed items are noted at the bottom of each page's report section.
• Path, query string, and regex exclusions. Skip URL patterns during the crawl - event listings, paginated archives, or any section that would inflate results without adding useful findings.
• Viewport width. Set the browser width used during each scan. Use 375 for mobile, 768 for tablet. Default is 1280.
• Auditor attribution. A Supporter feature. Add your name or agency to display as "Prepared by" in the header of every exported report. Leave blank to omit.
• Vesper Audit attribution. A Supporter toggle, enabled by default. Disable to remove the "Tool: Vesper Audit" credit and footer line from all exports for white-label delivery.
• Import & export settings. Export your full settings to JSON and import them on any machine. Keeps configurations consistent across team members or between client projects.

Platform

• macOS, Apple Silicon and Intel
• Requires Google Chrome
• Signed and notarized by Apple. No Gatekeeper warnings on first launch.
• Automatic updates. Vesper Audit checks for new versions in the background and notifies you in-app when an update is ready to install. A Check for Updates item in the application menu runs a check on demand.
• Light, dark, and system appearance modes.