Front End Checklist is live · free · last verified 30 Oct 2026 · viability monitor
Front End Checklist
Free, MIT-licensed front-end QA reference with 386 rules across 11 categories and an MCP server for AI coding agents.
Adopt it if your team already runs Claude or Cursor — grounding an assistant in 386 explicit rules beats hoping it recalls WCAG. The free curated checklists (Launch Checklist at 16 rules and roughly 45 minutes) give juniors a guided pre-deploy pass without a paid tool. Just don't buy it as a CI gate: nothing executes, scores, or monitors your code. Treat it as the scope-completeness layer, keep Lighthouse and axe underneath for detection, and skip it if you need an enforced build failure today.
Verdict generatedVerified 8h ago · liveness 63/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/front-end-checklist
- Junior developers working through the 16-rule Launch Checklist as a guided pre-deploy pass
- Senior reviewers who want a shared 386-rule standard instead of subjective code-review opinions
- AI-assisted teams wiring the MCP server into Claude or Cursor so assistants review against team standards
- Teams prepping a launch, redesign, or high-risk release who need structured audit scope
- Teams needing automated test execution or a CI gate that fails the build — this is a reference, not a runner
- Buyers expecting team workspaces, an analytics dashboard, or reminders today — those sit behind a waitlist
- Anyone wanting live performance monitoring or traffic analytics
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Skip Front-End Checklist if you need a tool that runs your pages and fails the build on regressions — its 386 rules are a review standard, and the execution still has to come from Lighthouse, axe, or a similar runner.
The checklist is free under MIT, but the value depends on a runner — Lighthouse, axe, or HTMLHint is a separate tool you still have to set up and maintain.
Front-End Checklist is free under an MIT license and positions itself as free forever for individuals, so there is no tier to weigh against paid QA tooling. If you need automated checks and build gates, you are comparing it to the cost of a runner like Lighthouse (free) or a commercial monitoring platform — budget for one of those alongside it, not instead of it.
In short
Front End Checklist — Free, MIT-licensed front-end QA reference with 386 rules across 11 categories and an MCP server for AI coding agents. Best for Junior developers working through the 16-rule Launch Checklist as a guided pre-deploy pass, Senior reviewers who want a shared 386-rule standard instead of subjective code-review opinions, AI-assisted teams wiring the MCP server into Claude or Cursor so assistants review against team standards. Free to use.
What is Front End Checklist?
Front End Checklist — Free, MIT-licensed front-end QA reference with 386 rules across 11 categories and an MCP server for AI coding agents. Best for Junior developers working through the 16-rule Launch Checklist as a guided pre-deploy pass, Senior reviewers who want a shared 386-rule standard instead of subjective code-review opinions, AI-assisted teams wiring the MCP server into Claude or Cursor so assistants review against team standards. Free to use.
Front-End Checklist is a free, open-source reference for what good front-end work looks like, split into 11 categories and 386 rules. It has been maintained by David Dias since 2017, carries an MIT license, and sits at roughly 74.6k GitHub stars. Nothing here runs your code or scores it — the rule corpus is the deliverable. The working pattern is to pair it with a runner such as Lighthouse, axe, or HTMLHint so the tooling catches the issues and the checklist stops you from skipping whole areas of scope. The category split is deliberately lopsided: accessibility leads with 95 rules, SEO follows at 94, then performance (44), CSS (32), JavaScript (26), HTML (25), images (25), security (22), testing (13), i18n (5), and privacy (5). Every category page carries a live completion counter, and a ⌘K palette searches the full rule set. Four curated checklists cover the "just tell me where to start" case: Launch Checklist (16 rules, 45 minutes, beginner), SEO Audit (12 rules, 30 minutes, intermediate), Performance Quick Wins (8 rules, 20 minutes, beginner), and Accessibility Essentials (12 rules, 35 minutes, intermediate). For AI-assisted teams, the MCP server at mcp.frontendchecklist.io pushes the same corpus into Claude, Cursor, and other MCP-capable assistants so an agent reviews against your listed standards instead of its training priors — searching rules by category or keyword and generating CI/CD checklists on request. Positioning-wise this is the scope and standards layer, not the enforcement layer: build gates, live monitoring, and team dashboards sit elsewhere. Team workspaces, an analytics dashboard, and smart reminders are advertised on the site but sit behind a waitlist.
Key features
- 386 front-end quality rules across 11 categories
- 95 accessibility rules covering WCAG compliance and inclusive design
- 94 SEO rules for meta tags, indexing, and search visibility
- 44 performance rules covering Core Web Vitals and rendering
- Launch Checklist: 16 rules, ~45 minutes, beginner difficulty
- SEO Audit checklist: 12 rules, ~30 minutes, intermediate
- Performance Quick Wins: 8 rules, ~20 minutes, beginner
- Accessibility Essentials: 12 rules, ~35 minutes, intermediate
- MCP server at mcp.frontendchecklist.io for Claude, Cursor, and other MCP tools
- Proactive code review against the rule corpus inside AI assistants
- Smart rule search by category or keyword via MCP
- Generate checklists for CI/CD pipelines through the MCP server
- ⌘K command palette with search across the full rule set
- Per-category completion counters (e.g. 0 / 95 for accessibility)
- llms.txt endpoint and MCP overview page for AI agent consumption
Behind the verdict
The strongest thing about Front-End Checklist is that it refuses to pretend to be a test runner. The corpus is the product: 386 explicit rules, weighted heavily toward the areas teams skip. Accessibility alone gets 95 rules and SEO 94 — together nearly half the set — which matches where real launches actually fail. The four curated checklists are the practical entry point rather than the raw category list: Launch Checklist (16 rules, 45 min, beginner) for pre-deploy, SEO Audit (12 rules, 30 min, intermediate) when indexing or metadata quality is an active concern, Performance Quick Wins (8 rules, 20 min, beginner) when you want the highest-impact fixes without a deep performance investigation, and Accessibility Essentials (12 rules, 35 min, intermediate) for new pages and redesigns. Each is tagged with difficulty and an estimated completion time, which is rare discipline for a free reference. The MCP server is what separates this from a static markdown checklist. Pointing Claude or Cursor at mcp.frontendchecklist.io means the assistant reviews against the same 386 rules your team uses on the site, instead of whatever WCAG detail its training priors happen to recall, and can pull rules by category or keyword and generate checklists for CI/CD pipelines. The llms.txt endpoint is a second, lower-effort route for agent consumption. The honest weaknesses: nothing executes. There are no scores, no build failures, no monitoring, no formatter. Per-category counters track what you've marked reviewed, not what your site actually does — that gap is yours to close with Lighthouse, axe, or HTMLHint. Team workspaces, an analytics dashboard, and smart reminders are advertised as coming soon but sit behind a waitlist, so for now collaboration means sharing a link or forking the repo. The site also still labels itself beta. Where it fits: teams that want a shared definition of "done," juniors who need a guided path, and AI-assisted shops wiring the corpus into an assistant. Where it doesn't: anyone shopping for automated QA, a CI gate, or live performance monitoring.
Limitations
- Front-End Checklist is a reference corpus of rules and curated checklists, not an automated testing or monitoring tool — nothing in the evidence shows it executing, scoring, or monitoring your code.
- The completion counters track what you have marked reviewed, not what your site actually does, so you still need a runner like Lighthouse, axe, or HTMLHint for detection.
- AI integration is limited to grounding an assistant in the same rule standards via MCP plus the llms.txt endpoint; you still have to review and apply findings yourself.
- Team workspaces, an analytics dashboard, and smart reminders are advertised as coming soon but are behind a waitlist, so collaboration today means sharing a link or forking the repo.
- The site itself is still labeled beta.
as of 2026-10-30
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Is Front End Checklist still active?
Front End Checklist is live · free · last verified 30 Oct 2026 · viability monitor.
Viability score
How well maintained and how widely used is Front End Checklist? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →What do users say about Front End Checklist?
What people actually say about Front End Checklist — is it worth it?
Our community sentiment research written Jul 3, 2026 is more than 90 days old, so it is being re-reviewed against current data and is not shown.
How we verified this
Every listed fact about Front End Checklist— pricing, features, links, status — is re-read from the vendor's own pages by our verification pipeline and each change is logged with a date; the last pass ran on 30 Oct 2026. Pages mix model-assisted synthesis with human review; see how we verify.
Verification history
We have re-verified Front End Checklist 9 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — changed setup time, description, limitations, switching in, use cases, hidden costs, switching out, features, who should skip it, who it suits, pricing fit, summary, our verdict
- — changed limitations, pricing page, pricing tiers, summary, our verdict, who should skip it, description, features, pricing model, who it suits
- — changed who it suits, description, features, who should skip it, pricing tiers, our verdict, summary
- — changed pricing page
- — changed description, who it suits, our verdict, features, hidden costs, integrations, limitations, switching in, switching out, who should skip it, pricing tiers, pricing fit, setup time, summary, use cases
- — changed SSL certificate
Showing the 6 most recent of 9 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
How much does Front End Checklist cost in 2026?
Front End Checklist: Free to use. Pricing last verified 30 Oct 2026.
Plans compared
Every published Front End Checklist tier, its price as the vendor publishes it, who it fits, and what it adds over the tier below. The 12-month cost projection follows.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | — | Individual developers, junior devs working the Launch Checklist, and AI-assisted teams wiring the MCP server into Claude or Cursor at no cost.Adds: Starting tier and the only tier: full 386-rule corpus, four curated checklists, ⌘K search, per-category counters, MCP server access, and an MIT license to fork and self-host. |
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Front End Checklist's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Front-End Checklist is free under an MIT license and positions itself as free forever for individuals, so there is no tier to weigh against paid QA tooling. If you need automated checks and build gates, you are comparing it to the cost of a runner like Lighthouse (free) or a commercial monitoring platform — budget for one of those alongside it, not instead of it.
Has Front End Checklist's pricing changed?
No plan price for Front End Checklist has moved since we began logging in Aug 2026; the pricing page is re-read on every verification pass.
Who should pick Front End Checklist?
Pick Front End Checklist if you are Junior developers working through the 16-rule Launch Checklist as a guided pre-deploy pass, Senior reviewers who want a shared 386-rule standard instead of subjective code-review opinions, AI-assisted teams wiring the MCP server into Claude or Cursor so assistants review against team standards, Teams prepping a launch, redesign, or high-risk release who need structured audit scope.
Look elsewhere if you are Teams needing automated test execution or a CI gate that fails the build — this is a reference, not a runner, Buyers expecting team workspaces, an analytics dashboard, or reminders today — those sit behind a waitlist, Anyone wanting live performance monitoring or traffic analytics, Projects looking for a code formatter or lint autofix rather than a review standard.
Skip it if Skip Front-End Checklist if you need a tool that runs your pages and fails the build on regressions — its 386 rules are a review standard, and the execution still has to come from Lighthouse, axe, or a similar runner.
GeneratedReal-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Front End Checklist actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Before deploy, open the Launch Checklist (16 rules, ~45 min, beginner) and work it top to bottom across HTML, SEO, security, and performance.
Outcome: A structured pre-deploy pass that covers the critical items instead of shipping whatever you happened to remember.
Assign SEO Audit (12 rules, ~30 min) and Accessibility Essentials (12 rules, ~35 min) to different reviewers, then check the per-category counters to see what has actually been covered.
Outcome: A defensible scope record showing which categories were reviewed and which were skipped.
Connect mcp.frontendchecklist.io so the assistant searches the rule corpus by category or keyword and reviews code against those standards mid-task.
Outcome: Assistant feedback grounded in your 386-rule reference rather than its training priors, with CI/CD checklists generated on request.
Use cases
- Run the 16-rule Launch Checklist before a new site, major redesign, or high-risk release goes live.
- Work the SEO Audit when traffic, indexing, metadata quality, or editorial discoverability are active concerns.
- Land the highest-impact performance improvements fast with Performance Quick Wins.
- Run Accessibility Essentials on new pages or redesigns where the core experience matters more than edge cases.
- Wire the MCP server into Claude or Cursor so code review happens against your rule corpus mid-task.
- Generate checklists for CI/CD pipelines inside an MCP-capable assistant.
- Standardize what "done" means across projects with a shared 386-rule reference instead of subjective review opinions.
- Track completion per category to see which areas of a build have actually been reviewed.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Front End Checklist — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Reading the site and starting a curated checklist takes minutes — the Launch Checklist is estimated at 45 minutes to complete. Wiring the MCP server into Claude or Cursor is a short setup from the MCP overview page at mcp.frontendchecklist.io, after which rule lookups happen inside your assistant. Full 386-rule coverage is a multi-session effort, not a single sitting.
Switching to or from Front End Checklist
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From a static markdown or spreadsheet checklist: map each line to the closest of the 386 rules and let the category counters replace manual tallying.
- →From ad-hoc code review opinions: adopt the category pages as the shared standard and point reviewers at the curated checklists first.
- →From assistant training priors: connect the MCP server so Claude or Cursor cites the rule corpus instead of recalling WCAG from memory.
- ↗To Lighthouse or axe: keep the corpus as scope, use the runner for detection and scores.
- ↗To a commercial QA or monitoring platform: export the categories you actually track and map them to the platform's rule set.
- ↗To a forked internal standard: clone the MIT-licensed repo and maintain your own copy of the rules.
Resources & guides
- Guidefrontendchecklist.io
Guides · Front End Checklist
In-depth how-to from frontendchecklist.io
- Resourcefrontendchecklist.io
Checklists · Front End Checklist
Helpful link from frontendchecklist.io
- Resourcefrontendchecklist.io
Rules · Front End Checklist
Helpful link from frontendchecklist.io
- Resourcemcp.frontendchecklist.io
Home · Front End Checklist
Helpful link from mcp.frontendchecklist.io
Tutorials & Learning
Frontend Checklist 🔥 #frontenddevelopment
DesignWithRehana
Frontend Checklist Compliance Checking
Blaine Robertson
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Front End Checklist”, and we withheld 4: 4 did not mention Front End Checklist. Showing the 2 we can prove are about Front End Checklist.
Official links
What are the best Front End Checklist alternatives?
The closest alternatives to Front End Checklist we list are Taste Skill, Sourcebot and Ponytail. Ranked by direct product-type match, not category overlap.
| Alternative | Pricing | Starts at | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taste Skill | Free | Free | — |
| Sourcebot | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Ponytail | Free | Free | — |
Alternatives to Front End Checklist
View all
Taste Skill
Open-source SKILL.md rules that stop AI coding agents shipping generic frontend UI
Tools that pair well with Front End Checklist
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Front End Checklist, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Taste Skill
Open-source SKILL.md rules that stop AI coding agents shipping generic frontend UI
Sourcebot
Self-hosted code search and AI code Q&A that gives coding agents context across every repo you own
Ponytail
Ponytail is an MIT-licensed ruleset that makes your AI coding agent write the least code that works — 53% less, the vendor says.
Front End Checklist vs its closest rival
Front End Checklist's closest head-to-head is with Cognition Ai — Cognition AI and Front End Checklist serve fundamentally different needs. If you need an autonomous agent that writes, tests, and ships production code with enterprise-grade guarantees, Devin is the clear choice. If you need a free, comprehensive checklist to ensure your front-end follows best practices—especially for learning or manual review—Front End Checklist is invaluable. Most teams will benefit from both: Devin automates execution, while the checklist guides quality. Verdict generated
Head-to-head comparisons
Front End Checklist vs Cognition Ai
Cognition AI and Front End Checklist serve fundamentally different needs. If you need an autonomous agent that writes, tests, and ships production code with enterprise-grade guarantees, Devin is the clear choice. If you need a free, comprehensive checklist to ensure your front-end follows best practices—especially for learning or manual review—Front End Checklist is invaluable. Most teams will benefit from both: Devin automates execution, while the checklist guides quality.
GeneratedFront End Checklist vs Bito
Choose Front-End Checklist if you need a free, comprehensive, human-friendly reference for front-end best practices, especially for learning or manual audits. Choose Bito if your team uses AI coding agents and needs live, cross-repo context to improve code generation, reviews, and planning—backed by recent features like conversational learning from Slack and Jira.
GeneratedFrequently asked questions
Best-of guides
Topics
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