@real-a11y-dev/core

TL;DR — Extracts a browser-accurate accessibility tree from any DOM element, as plain data (Map<string, SemanticNode>). Zero runtime dependencies. Reach for this when you're building your own tooling on top of the engine; for apps, use one of the wrapper packages.

Want a ready-made tool, not a custom build? Audit from the shell with @real-a11y-dev/cli, or give an AI agent accessibility audits via @real-a11y-dev/mcp — both sit on this layer already, so you don't have to build them.

The extraction engine. Every other package is built on top of this.

Install

# Most apps — dev-only (used in tests or behind a dev gate)
npm install -D @real-a11y-dev/core

# Library authors / tools that ship core at runtime — regular dep or peer
npm install @real-a11y-dev/core

@real-a11y-dev/core has no runtime dependencies. It uses standard DOM APIs only.

Which type of dependency do I need?

-D (dev) is the right default for most apps — you're using core inside tests, Storybook, or a dev-only audit panel gated by import.meta.env.DEV / process.env.NODE_ENV. See Keep it out of production.
Regular dependency if you're publishing your own package that uses core at runtime (e.g. a new audit tool on top of the engine).
peerDependency if you're publishing a library that composes core with other Real A11y packages — lets consumers share a single copy.

Extraction

`extractA11yTree(root)`

Extracts the accessibility tree from a DOM element.

import { extractA11yTree } from "@real-a11y-dev/core";

const tree = extractA11yTree(document.getElementById("app"));
// tree: { nodes: Map<string, SemanticNode>; rootId: string; focusedId?: string }

Resolves ARIA roles, computes accessible names via the full ANDC algorithm, detects hidden subtrees, and maps interaction capabilities.

Media elements mirror the browser's native accessibility tree: <video> and <audio> get the video / audio roles Chromium shows in DevTools (ARIA defines no media roles, so a strict HTML-AAM mapping would hide them as generic). Media nodes are leaves — unrendered fallback content and <track>/<source> metadata never become tree nodes — and each carries a properties.captions flag ("true" / "false") telling you whether the element ships a captions or subtitles track (the WCAG 1.2.2 signal). A media element with native controls is reported focusable; its play/seek/volume buttons live in a closed user-agent shadow root that no in-page extractor can reach.

focusedId is the id of the element that held focus at extraction time, when it's inside the extracted subtree — absent when focus rested on <body>/<html> (nothing meaningfully focused) or fell outside the tree. The serializers in @real-a11y-dev/testing render it as a [focused] marker.

`extractDomTree(root)`

Same shape as extractA11yTree, but uses raw tag names as roles instead of ARIA roles. Useful when you want to audit DOM structure rather than accessibility semantics.

import { extractDomTree } from "@real-a11y-dev/core";

const tree = extractDomTree(document.querySelector("main"));

Query helpers

`findByRole(tree, role, options?)`

Returns the first SemanticNode matching the given role, or null.

import { extractA11yTree, findByRole } from "@real-a11y-dev/core";

const tree = extractA11yTree(root);
const submitBtn = findByRole(tree, "button", { name: /submit/i });

Options:

Option	Type	Description
`name`	`string \| RegExp`	Filter by accessible name. String: exact match (case/whitespace-normalized). RegExp: `.test()`.
`level`	`number`	Filter by heading level (1–6).
`checked`	`boolean`	Filter by `aria-checked` state.
`expanded`	`boolean`	Filter by `aria-expanded` state.
`selected`	`boolean`	Filter by `aria-selected` state.
`pressed`	`boolean`	Filter by `aria-pressed` state.
`disabled`	`boolean`	Filter by `aria-disabled` state.
`includeHidden`	`boolean`	Include nodes in `aria-hidden` subtrees (default: false).

`findAllByRole(tree, role, options?)`

Returns all matching nodes as SemanticNode[].

const headings = findAllByRole(tree, "heading", { level: 2 });

Tree traversal

`linearize(tree, options?)`

Returns all nodes in pre-order (DOM order), skipping hidden nodes by default.

import { linearize } from "@real-a11y-dev/core";

const nodes = linearize(tree);
// SemanticNode[] in DOM order

Options:

Option	Type	Default	Description
`includeHidden`	`boolean`	`false`	Include `aria-hidden` subtrees

Structure queries

`getOutline(tree)`

Returns heading nodes as a flat outline list.

import { getOutline } from "@real-a11y-dev/core";

const outline = getOutline(tree);
// [{ id, level, name }, ...]

`getTabSequence(tree)`

Returns focusable nodes in computed tab order.

import { getTabSequence } from "@real-a11y-dev/core";

const sequence = getTabSequence(tree);
// SemanticNode[] — positive tabindex ascending, then natural order

Disclosure-pair index

`buildControlsIndex(nodes)`

Resolves the aria-controls relationship across a tree and returns adjacency maps in both directions, so callers can render cross-links between disclosure triggers (button, tab, combobox) and the elements they open (menu, panel, listbox).

import { extractA11yTree, buildControlsIndex } from "@real-a11y-dev/core";

const tree = extractA11yTree(root);
const { forward, reverse, inferred } = buildControlsIndex(tree.nodes);

// forward.get(triggerNodeId) → tree-node ids the trigger controls
// reverse.get(controlledNodeId) → tree-node ids of triggers pointing at it
// inferred.has(triggerNodeId) → true when the link came from the heuristic
//                               fallback rather than an explicit aria-controls

The lookup happens entirely in tree-node id space — DOM ids are resolved internally so callers never deal with them.

Two link sources, merged into the same maps:

Explicit aria-controls — the principled relationship. Always preferred.
Heuristic fallback — for triggers that expose aria-haspopup + aria-expanded="true" but no aria-controls, paired with the next visible element of the matching role (aria-haspopup="menu" → role="menu", aria-haspopup="listbox" → role="listbox", etc.). Common in apps that skip aria-controls. Conservative by design: skipped when the trigger already has aria-controls, won't poach an element that's already an explicit target, and excludes hidden candidates.

The inferred set lists trigger ids whose link came from the heuristic — render those cross-links with a "likely" affordance (different style, hedged tooltip) instead of presenting them as ground truth.

`ControlsIndex`

interface ControlsIndex {
  /** trigger tree-node id → tree-node ids it controls */
  forward: Map<string, string[]>;
  /** controlled tree-node id → tree-node ids of triggers pointing at it */
  reverse: Map<string, string[]>;
  /** subset of `forward` keys whose link came from the heuristic */
  inferred: Set<string>;
}

Tree diffing

`diffTrees(before, after)`

Compares two tree snapshots and returns what changed.

import { diffTrees } from "@real-a11y-dev/core";

const before = extractA11yTree(root);
// ...user interaction...
const after = extractA11yTree(root);

const diff = diffTrees(before, after);
// { added: SemanticNode[], removed: SemanticNode[], changed: NodeChange[] }

Node ids come from a per-DOM-node WeakMap, so the same element keeps its id across extractions — that's what makes this an identity-aware comparison rather than a text diff. It also means diffTrees only works within one live document: ids don't survive serialization, so two separately-captured snapshots can't be compared this way (for that, use the CLI's artifact diff).

NodeChange:

interface NodeChange {
  id: string;
  before: SemanticNode;
  after: SemanticNode;
  /** Dot-paths that differ, e.g. ["a11y.name", "a11y.states.expanded"] */
  changes: string[];
}

To render a diff as a committable change list (+ option "Spain", ~ combobox "Country": a11y.states.expanded false → true), pass it to serializeTreeDiff from @real-a11y-dev/serialize.

DOM observation

`DomObserver`

Watches a DOM subtree for mutations and calls a callback. Rapid mutations are debounced, and a max-wait ceiling ensures the callback still fires on a stream that never goes quiet (streaming responses, progress bars, animated content) instead of the debounce deferring it forever.

The callback receives a TreeChange object containing the accumulated MutationRecords and any synthetic dirty roots produced by input/change events (which MutationObserver cannot see natively).

import { DomObserver, type TreeChange } from "@real-a11y-dev/core";

const observer = new DomObserver(
  root,
  (change?: TreeChange) => {
    console.log("DOM changed, re-extract", change);
  },
  200, // debounce: wait 200ms of quiet before firing
  undefined, // internalIds: mutations to ignore (defaults to the overlay set)
  1000, // maxWaitMs: flush at least this often during a continuous stream
);

observer.start();
// Later:
observer.stop();

Live tree extraction

`LiveTreeExtractor`

Stateful extractor that keeps the previous tree in memory and re-extracts only the subtrees that changed, falling back to a full extraction when a mutation has non-local accessibility effects (portal/modal scope changes, id, aria-labelledby, aria-describedby, for, etc.).

Used by the Chrome extension, React hook, and Storybook addon to keep the tree fresh during typing or small DOM updates without paying the cost of a full page walk every time.

import { LiveTreeExtractor, DomObserver } from "@real-a11y-dev/core";

const extractor = new LiveTreeExtractor(document.body, { mode: "a11y" });

const observer = new DomObserver(document.body, (change) => {
  const tree = extractor.refresh(change);
  // tree is the same shape as extractA11yTree/ extractDomTree
});

observer.start();

mode is "a11y" (default) or "dom". Call extractor.extract() for an unconditional full re-extract, or extractor.setMode(mode) to switch views.

Types

import type {
  SemanticNode,
  ExtractionResult,
  SemanticNavigatorConfig,
  FindByRoleOptions,
  OutlineEntry,
  NodeChange,
  TreeDiff,
  LinearizeOptions,
  QueryInput,
  TreeViewMode,
  ActionType,
  TreeChange,
  LiveTreeExtractorOptions,
} from "@real-a11y-dev/core";

@real-a11y-dev/core ​

Install ​

Extraction ​

extractA11yTree(root) ​

extractDomTree(root) ​

Query helpers ​

findByRole(tree, role, options?) ​

findAllByRole(tree, role, options?) ​

Tree traversal ​

linearize(tree, options?) ​

Structure queries ​

getOutline(tree) ​

getTabSequence(tree) ​

Disclosure-pair index ​

buildControlsIndex(nodes) ​

ControlsIndex ​

Tree diffing ​

diffTrees(before, after) ​

DOM observation ​

DomObserver ​

Live tree extraction ​

LiveTreeExtractor ​

Types ​