Auditing

Auditing

Use this skill when the user wants to review, optimize, or verify an existing WordPress site rather than primarily build new functionality.

Ownership

This skill owns:

• performance audits using Studio MCP tools
• accessibility-focused review of color, contrast, motion, and readability
• visible frontend quality review when the user asks for QA or polish
• before-and-after audit comparison after fixes

Use studio for site resolution, screenshots, and MCP tool usage details.

Principle

Start with the smallest audit that answers the user's request.

• If the user asks about speed, Core Web Vitals, or performance, prioritize the performance workflow.
• If the user asks about accessibility, contrast, readability, or color usage, prioritize the accessibility workflow.
• If the user asks for a general review, combine the relevant sections and keep the report practical.

Do not invent automated checks that the available tools do not provide. When a conclusion comes from visual inspection or code reading rather than a dedicated tool, say so.

Workflow

1. Resolve the target site

Use studio to:

• identify the site
• ensure it is running
• confirm the page or URL path to review

If the user did not specify a page, default to /.

2. Pick the audit scope

Choose one or more of:

• Performance Audit
• Accessibility Review
• Visual QA

Tell the user which scope you are using when it is not obvious from the request.

Once you begin the actual audit workflow, call record_workflow_event with workflow: "auditing" and stage: "started".

3. Performance Audit

Use need_for_speed for the requested path.

Interpret at least:

• TTFB
• FCP
• LCP
• CLS
• total page weight
• request count
• DOM size
• JS, CSS, image, and font breakdown

Use these baseline thresholds:

Use these page-composition warning signs:

• DOM elements above 1500
• total page weight above 3 MB
• total requests above 80
• scripts above 20 files or 500 KB total
• stylesheets above 10 files or 200 KB total

Translate findings into WordPress-specific actions where possible, such as:

• reducing or replacing heavy plugins
• deferring or removing non-critical JS
• reducing oversized images
• trimming unused theme CSS
• checking duplicate font loads
• simplifying wrapper-heavy block layouts

4. Accessibility Review

Use take_screenshot plus theme or plugin code inspection as needed.

Focus on issues this repo can realistically help with:

• low text/background contrast
• weak CTA contrast or ambiguous button states
• missing or unclear hover and focus states
• motion that should respect prefers-reduced-motion
• readability issues caused by font size, line height, or dense layouts
• color choices that make important information hard to distinguish

When the issue is visual, prefer take_screenshot-backed observations. Use inspect_design when the rendered DOM or computed styles would identify the root cause faster than code inspection.

When the issue appears structural, inspect the relevant theme or plugin files before recommending a fix.

5. Visual QA

When the user wants a broader quality pass, use take_screenshot to check:

• spacing and alignment
• responsive layout issues
• broken visual hierarchy
• inconsistent component styling
• awkward cropping or media balance

Keep this section focused on visible problems that materially affect the site.

6. Report clearly

Summarize:

• what you audited
• the most important findings
• the likely causes
• the highest-value next fixes

Prefer a short prioritized report over a long exhaustive list.

7. Re-test after changes

If fixes are made during the same task, re-run the relevant audit steps and compare before versus after.

Call out what improved, what did not, and any remaining tradeoffs.

When the audit workflow is complete, call record_workflow_event with workflow: "auditing" and stage: "completed".

Important notes

• need_for_speed results are synthetic measurements from a local Studio environment. Use them primarily for diagnosis and before-versus-after comparison, not as production truth.
• Accessibility observations in this workflow are often based on visual review and code inspection rather than a dedicated automated accessibility scanner.
• When performance, accessibility, and design issues conflict, explain the tradeoff instead of over-optimizing one dimension silently.