GUIDE answer firstRULES.md thresholds and incidentsread on 2026-09-28
glancelessMEASURE THE PAGE, NOT THE SOURCE

GLANCELESS / SPECIFIC QUESTION

What does glanceless check in a rendered webpage?

glanceless checks seven page-level failure modes in a real browser: contrast, dead columns, page chrome, full-column figures, one banned card composition, table shape, and copy noise. It reads the rendered DOM, computed style, geometry, and pixels, then returns a finding with a selector and measurements instead of judging the source code. Source checked 2026-09-28.

Which seven checks does glanceless run?

The seven checks cover visual and structural defects that can survive a successful build and a 200 response. The product README lists the checks and the rules document defines their rendered-page boundaries. README and RULES.md (checked 2026-09-28)

contrastPainted-background contrast for text and informational marks.
dead-columnRows that stop far short of the page width established elsewhere.
page-chromeA route missing the home page’s navigation, footer, or path home.
figureA full-width picture without a qualifying band, split layout, cover, or dense capture.
card compositionA banned composition defined by the product’s design-system rule.
table-shapeA table whose rows are facts rather than values compared across columns.
noisePerformed sincerity and filler padding in visible product copy.

How does glanceless decide whether a page fails?

Run the page in a real Chromium browser, let the rule measure the rendered result, and inspect the selector, value, and message in the output. glanceless deliberately does not inspect a framework, stylesheet, or source file, so the same rendered defect is checked whether it came from a template, CMS field, or hand-written route. RULES.md (checked 2026-09-28)

  1. Install the package and its optional Playwright peer, then install Chromium.
  2. Run npx glanceless demo for the bundled clean and failing fixtures.
  3. Use glanceless <url|file|dir> for the page or pages you want to check.
  4. Fix the reported selector and rerun; a finding is not a note to ignore.

Local files are served over HTTP because Chromium treats a file:// image as cross-origin during the figure measurement. README (checked 2026-09-28)

What do glanceless exit codes mean?

Exit code 0 means the page was checked and clean, 1 means it was checked and a rule found a violation, and 2 means it could not be checked. A missing browser, unreachable page, or unreadable reference page remains 2; it does not collapse into a clean result. README (checked 2026-09-28)

0checked, clean
1checked, finding
2could not check

What does glanceless not replace?

glanceless covers the design-system rules it was built to measure, not the full space of accessibility or design review. The product documents explicitly keep manual review in the loop; the tool removes a class of defects that can render normally while still failing the rule. README (checked 2026-09-28)

Back to the rules and captured demo