Check a websitePL

Check a website in the terminal

A step-by-step guide for macOS and Windows. It takes a few minutes, and you end up with a PDF report on your disk.

macOS

  1. Open Terminal

    Press ⌘ Cmd + Space, type “Terminal” and press Enter.

  2. Install sitelens

    Paste the command and press Enter. The installer downloads Node.js from nodejs.org and sitelens into your home folder (the .sitelens folder). No administrator password is needed, and it takes about a minute.

    curl -fsSL https://sitelens.pl/install.sh | sh

  3. Open a new Terminal window

    Press ⌘ Cmd + N. The new window knows the sitelens command.

  4. Run sitelens

    Type the command and press Enter. Pick the report language with the arrow keys, paste the website address and choose a mode: quick, standard or thorough.

    sitelens

  5. Wait for the result

    The terminal shows progress for performance, SEO, accessibility and security. Keep the window open until the audit finishes.

  6. Open the report

    At the end sitelens asks whether to open the report. report.pdf stays in your home folder (in Finder: Go → Home).

Windows

  1. Open PowerShell

    Click Start, type “PowerShell” and press Enter.

  2. Install sitelens

    Paste the command and press Enter. The installer downloads Node.js from nodejs.org and sitelens into your user folder. No administrator rights are needed, and it takes about a minute.

    irm https://sitelens.pl/install.ps1 | iex

  3. Open a new PowerShell window

    Close the window and open PowerShell again. The new window knows the sitelens command.

  4. Run sitelens

    Type the command and press Enter. Pick the report language with the arrow keys, paste the website address and choose a mode: quick, standard or thorough.

    sitelens

  5. Wait for the result

    The window shows progress for performance, SEO, accessibility and security. Keep it open until the audit finishes.

  6. Open the report

    At the end sitelens asks whether to open the report. report.pdf stays in your user folder (C:\Users\Your name).

Already have Node.js?

With Node.js 22.19 or newer you do not need the installer: run the audit with npx. The first time, and after each update, npm asks whether to download the package (“Ok to proceed?”); just press Enter. In PowerShell type npx.cmd instead of npx. You can install Node.js from nodejs.org, on macOS also with brew install node, and on Windows with winget install OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS.

npx sitelens

What a finished audit looks like

npx sitelens https://przykladowa-firma.pl

Checking 12 pages

  • Performance58
  • SEO76
  • Accessibility69
  • Security82
71 Overall score

Report saved: report.pdf

Useful options

sitelens https://yourwebsite.com
An audit without questions: it starts right away for the address you give.
--pages 20
Checks more pages. The default is 10, at most 50.
--lang en
Report in English. Without it, the report is in Polish.
--out report-shop.pdf
Saves the report under a name or in a folder of your choice.
--json
Also saves the raw results as JSON.

When something goes wrong

The terminal does not know the sitelens command
Open a new terminal window: one opened before the installation does not see the new command yet. If that does not help, run the install command again.
“command not found: npx” or “'npx' is not recognized as an internal or external command”
Node.js is not installed, or the terminal was open before you installed it. Close the terminal, open it again and retry.
PowerShell: an error about “npx.ps1” and “running scripts is disabled on this system”
This is a default Windows safeguard that blocks PowerShell scripts. Type npx.cmd instead of npx (it works in PowerShell and in Command Prompt) or use Command Prompt.
A message about a missing browser
sitelens opens the site in a Chromium-based browser: Chrome, Edge, Brave or Chromium. If the computer has none, run sitelens --install-browser and repeat the audit.
The website does not respond or the audit stops
Check that the address is correct and that the site opens in your browser. Pages behind a login cannot be checked.

Don’t want to install anything? Check a website online.