aeo-scan

Audit pages the way AI answer engines read them — the open-source scanner for The AEO Standard, scoring its mechanical checks with the standard's own point values.

Zero runtime dependencies. Node ≥ 20. MIT.

npx aeo-scan https://example.com/some-page

That single command runs the nine core checks (title and description bands, canonical, exactly-one H1, OG tags, JSON-LD schema types, BreadcrumbList, FAQ depth), the hidden-text gate, and the AEO Standard mechanical scorecard — and exits nonzero when a core check fails, so it drops straight into CI.

What it scores — and deliberately does not

The AEO Standard marks every check [M] mechanical or [J] judgment. This scanner scores the mechanical checks only — 55 of 100 points in single-URL scope — and reports the judgment sections (all 25 points of Substance & Originality among them) as unscored, because whether a page says anything worth citing cannot be measured by regex. It never claims a PUBLISH or REJECT verdict from structure alone, with one exception:

The gate. Text hidden from human readers but served to crawlers — screen-reader-only blocks of body copy, clip:rect(0,0,0,0) or 1×1-pixel containers, large off-screen offsets — wrapping more than 40 words is an automatic REJECT, overriding any score, exactly as the standard specifies. Short hidden text (skip links, icon labels) is normal accessibility practice and is not flagged; neither is display:none.

A structural score is a floor, not a forecast. No score guarantees citation by any answer engine — a tool or consultant promising otherwise is selling certainty that does not exist.

Modes

npx aeo-scan <url> [<url>…]                  # single-URL audit(s): core checks + gate + scorecard
npx aeo-scan                                 # source-parse src/app, exit 1 on tier failure (CI gate)
npx aeo-scan --fetch http://localhost:3000   # rendered-HTML audit of every discovered route
npx aeo-scan --fetch https://site.com --sitemap          # discover routes from sitemap.xml
npx aeo-scan --fetch https://site.com --sitemap --md docs/AEO-AUDIT.md   # + Markdown report
npx aeo-scan --json                          # machine-readable output (all modes)
npx aeo-scan --verbose                       # print passing checks too

Source-parse mode walks a Next.js App Router tree and checks each page.tsx for the structural elements the standard requires, with three-tier route classification (strict / light / policy). Fetch mode audits rendered HTML per route — JSON-LD parsing is @graph-aware, the bug class that makes whole sites read as schema-free to naive scanners.

Per-site config — aeo-scan.config.json

Everything site-specific lives here; no config = generic defaults.

{
  "appDir": "src/app",
  "tiers": {
    "strict": ["/", "/answers", "/[stateSlug]"],
    "light": ["/about/ai", "/methodology"],
    "policy": ["/privacy", "/terms"]
  },
  "defaultTier": "strict",                     // unknown routes fail loud
  "substitutions": { "[stateSlug]": "california" },
  "sourceChecks": { "AtomicAnswer": "<AtomicAnswer\\b" },  // override/extend component regexes
  "fetch": { "titleMin": 38, "titleMax": 60, "descMin": 120, "descMax": 160 },
  "atomicPattern": "AtomicAnswer-module"       // extra rendered-DOM atomic detection
}

The default source-parse checks look for the component conventions iSimplifyMe sites use (<AtomicAnswer>, <FAQSchema>, …) — regex patterns in config, not hardcoded. The core-check bands are configurable; the scorecard's section points always follow the standard as published.

Install

The npm package is this CLI (from 0.1.0):

npm install -g aeo-scan     # or npx aeo-scan, no install

Internal iSimplifyMe repos consume the same code as @isimplifyme/aeo-scan from GitHub Packages; the npmjs package is staged from the identical built dist/ via npm run stage:npmjs.

The AEO Standard

• The standard (CC BY 4.0): github.com/iSimplifyMe/aeo-standard · canonical home isimplifyme.com/labs/aeo-standard
• White-paper edition: isimplifyme.com/whitepapers/the-aeo-standard
• Free web scanner — the same checks in the browser

Development

npm install
npm test          # vitest
npm run build     # tsc → dist/

Scope and maintenance

The core stays small and dependency-free; site-specific customization belongs in aeo-scan.config.json, not in the core. Issues are reviewed on a monthly cadence — reports of false positives or false negatives in specific checks are especially welcome, with the page HTML (or a reduction) attached.

License

MIT © iSimplifyMe

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Maintained by iSimplifyMe — AI orchestration infrastructure and answer-engine optimization. Commercial support and full-rubric audits: isimplifyme.com/services/aeo-infrastructure.