Axe MCP Server

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Overview

The Axe MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that integrates enterprise-grade accessibility testing directly into your development workflow. Built on the trusted Axe platform, it enables developers to perform comprehensive accessibility scans and receive expert remediation guidance without leaving their IDE.

The server provides two tools: analyze, which scans a page and can run Intelligent Guided Tests against it in the same call, and remediate, which turns the issues found into code fixes. A third tool, igt, is deprecated.

These tools integrate seamlessly with MCP-compatible clients (like Claude Desktop, VS Code with Copilot, or Cursor) and respect your organization's Axe Configuration settings.

Getting Access

Axe MCP Server is included in the Axe DevTools for Web bundle. A subscription that enables Axe MCP Server access is set up by talking to a Deque sales representative.

Tools & Capabilities

The analyze Tool

Scans a web page for accessibility issues in a real browser, with the Axe DevTools Browser Extension, and returns the results to your agent. It works with local development URLs such as localhost:3000 and with remote URLs, and respects your organization's Axe Configuration.

Options let you scan at a specific viewport size, scope the scan to part of the page, log in or dismiss banners before scanning, inject cookies, capture a screenshot, and run Advanced Rules.

See Analyze Tool.

Intelligent Guided Tests

The analyze tool can also run Deque's Automated Intelligent Guided Tests (IGTs) against the same page, in the same call: the Keyboard, Interactive Elements, and Modal Dialog IGTs. IGTs are AI-powered and consume AI credits.

See Intelligent Guided Tests.

The remediate Tool

Takes the issues analyze found and returns AI-powered fix guidance, including a concrete code fix, that your coding agent can apply. Submit every issue from a run in one batched call. Each issue consumes AI credits.

See Remediate Tool.

The igt Tool

Deprecated. Use analyze with the igtTools parameter instead. See The igt Tool.

Getting Started

Setting up the Axe MCP Server involves three independent choices:

  1. Choose a distribution — Docker or npm
  2. Set up authentication — an API key or OAuth 2.0
  3. Configure your client — VS Code with Copilot, Cursor, or Claude Code

Claude Code users can skip these steps with the Axe Accessibility plugin, which registers the server and adds slash commands for setup, agent instructions, and running the full remediation loop.

For environment variables and recommended AI-agent instructions, see the Configuration Reference. If something goes wrong, see Troubleshooting.

Example Prompts

Ensuring expected tools get called

In many IDEs, using the following syntax ("#" prefix) will ensure the Axe MCP Server tools are called as expected:

#analyze the http://localhost:3033/ web page for accessibility issues and #remediate any violations found

Analyze a localhost URL for accessibility issues:

Analyze http://localhost:3000 for accessibility issues

Analysis with remediation:

Analyze https://example.com for accessibility issues and fix any issues found

Analyze a page behind a login:

Analyze http://localhost:3000 for accessibility issues. Before running the
analysis, fill in the #username and #password fields with USERNAME and
PASSWORD from ./.env.local, click the button[type=submit] button, and
wait for #main-content to appear.
Analyze https://example.com for accessibility issues, but first click the
#cookie-dismiss button to dismiss the cookie consent banner.

Capture a screenshot of the page:

Analyze http://localhost:3000 for accessibility issues and capture a screenshot of the page

Scan a page with an injected session cookie:

Analyze https://app.example.com for accessibility issues. Set the session
cookie for app.example.com from ./.env.local so the scan starts already
logged in.

Run every guided test in one call:

Analyze http://localhost:3000 for accessibility issues with thorough
advanced rules. Also run the keyboard, interactive elements, and modal
guided tests (test the modal triggered by button#open-dialog).

Choose which interactive elements to test:

Analyze http://localhost:3000 and run the interactive elements guided test.
Show me the interactive elements it finds first and let me choose which
ones to test.

Test a modal dialog:

Analyze http://localhost:3000 and run the modal guided test on the dialog
opened by #open-dialog

Support

For questions, issues, or feedback regarding the Axe MCP Server:

Security & Privacy

For what the server sends to Deque, what it stores, and what access your AI agent needs, see the Security & Privacy FAQ.

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