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@accesswatch accesswatch released this 27 Mar 22:02
v4.5.0
463fb0f

Accessibility Agents 4.5.0

Released: March 27, 2026 | 232 files changed | 96 agents updated across 3 platforms

What's New

4.5.0 is our biggest quality-of-life release yet. The installer now guides you through MCP server setup automatically. Document audit reports speak in plain language instead of XML schemas. The entire agent suite is aligned to VS Code 1.113. And the installation, update, and uninstall tooling has been comprehensively rebuilt for reliability.

Guided MCP Server Installation

Before 4.5.0: You installed the agents, then had to manually navigate to the MCP server directory, figure out which npm packages you needed, configure VS Code settings.json by hand, and hope it all worked.

Now: The installer walks you through everything.

Interactive Capability Planner

When the installer detects Node.js, it presents a guided setup menu:

  1. Baseline scanning - Core accessibility scanning tools
  2. Browser testing - Adds Playwright and axe-core for live page testing
  3. PDF-heavy workflow - Adds pdf-lib for form conversion
  4. Everything - All of the above plus deep PDF validation prerequisites
  5. Custom - Pick exactly what you need

Automatic Dependency Management

  • Node.js detection and installation - If Node.js 18+ is not found, the installer offers to install it via winget (Windows) or brew (macOS)
  • npm dependencies - Core MCP server packages installed automatically (npm install --omit=dev)
  • Playwright and Chromium - When browser testing is selected, Playwright is installed and Chromium is downloaded (npx playwright install chromium)
  • pdf-lib - Installed when PDF form capabilities are selected
  • Java and veraPDF - For deep PDF/UA validation, the installer offers to set up Java 21 JRE and veraPDF through platform package managers

VS Code Settings Auto-Configuration

The installer automatically merges the MCP server entry into your VS Code settings.json - for both Stable and Insiders editions if you have them. No manual JSON editing required.

Health Check and Readiness Dashboard

At the end of installation, you see a readiness report:

MCP Capability Readiness
  [x] Node.js 18+
  [x] npm
  [x] MCP core dependencies
  [x] Baseline PDF scan
  [!] Deep PDF validation (Java found, veraPDF missing)
  [x] Local health smoke test - READY
  [x] Playwright
  [x] Chromium
  [x] pdf-lib

The installer actually starts the MCP server on a test port and hits /health to confirm everything works before declaring success.

Completely Rebuilt Installation Tooling

The install, update, and uninstall scripts for both PowerShell and Bash have been rewritten from the ground up with a shared library architecture.

New Command-Line Flags

Every script now supports these flags (both install.ps1/install.sh, update.ps1/update.sh, and uninstall.ps1/uninstall.sh):

The following table lists flags available across all installer operations.

Flag What it does
--dry-run Simulates the operation, writes a JSON plan file, changes nothing
--check Validates your environment and exits - useful for CI pre-flight
--yes Auto-approves all prompts for non-interactive and CI use
--vscode-stable Target only VS Code Stable
--vscode-insiders Target only VS Code Insiders
--vscode-both Target both editions
--summary=path Override where the JSON summary file is written

The installer adds additional selection flags:

The following table lists installer-specific selection flags.

Flag What it does
--copilot Pre-select Copilot agent installation
--cli Pre-select Copilot CLI installation
--codex Pre-select Codex installation
--gemini Pre-select Gemini CLI installation
--no-auto-update Skip auto-update scheduling
--mcp-profile-stable / --mcp-profile-insiders / --mcp-profile-both Control which VS Code editions get MCP settings

Machine-Readable Output

Every operation now writes a structured JSON summary file (.a11y-agent-team-install-summary.json, -update-summary.json, or -uninstall-summary.json) containing the full record of what was installed, where, which VS Code profiles were targeted, and what the MCP configuration state is. CI pipelines can parse these for automated validation.

Shared Installer Libraries

Two new shared modules (scripts/Installer.Common.ps1 and scripts/installer-common.sh) provide consistent cross-platform behavior for VS Code profile detection, JSON summary writing, directory operations, and backup metadata. This eliminated duplicated logic and the class of bugs where PowerShell and Bash installers behaved differently.

Clean Uninstallation

The uninstaller now removes the MCP server entry from VS Code settings.json automatically - including cleanup of empty mcp.servers objects. Previously you had to edit settings.json by hand after uninstalling.

Document Audit Reports Now Speak Plain Language

This is a fundamental change in how document accessibility findings are presented.

Native-Tool-First Remediation

Every finding across all document agents - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and the CSV export - now follows a new three-part structure:

Start Here - tells the user exactly what to do in the native application (Word ribbon path, Excel menu, PowerPoint selection pane, Acrobat Pro tool panel). This is the first thing readers see.

Why It Matters - explains the accessibility impact in plain language.

Advanced / Technical Follow-Up - XML structures, scripting approaches, and programmatic fixes for power users who need them.

What Changed

  • document-accessibility-wizard - New Remediation Writing Standard, new Start Here and Native App Action Plan sections in the report template
  • word-accessibility - All findings restructured with Start Here leading to Word ribbon paths
  • excel-accessibility - All findings restructured with Start Here leading to Excel menu paths
  • powerpoint-accessibility - All findings restructured with Start Here leading to Selection Pane and slide layout paths
  • pdf-accessibility - All findings restructured with Start Here leading to Acrobat Pro tool paths, with specific note about Acrobat triage before source rebuilds
  • document-csv-reporter - CSV fix_suggestion column now leads with native-app action in the first sentence

Why This Matters

Most people who receive a document accessibility audit report are content authors, not developers. They know how to use Word and PowerPoint. They should not have to parse XML schemas to fix a missing alt text description. Now they do not have to.

96 Agent Definitions Updated Across 3 Platforms

Every agent change was synchronized across GitHub Copilot (.github/agents/), Claude Code (.claude/agents/), and the Claude Code plugin (claude-code-plugin/agents/).

Coordinator Safety

All coordinator agents (accessibility-lead, web-accessibility-wizard, document-accessibility-wizard, and others) now declare an explicit agents: list in their YAML frontmatter specifying exactly which specialist agents they are allowed to invoke. The validator enforces this at commit time.

This prevents the "wrong agent called" problem and makes the orchestration architecture visible and auditable in code review.

Platform Focus: Windows and macOS

4.5.0 removes Linux desktop accessibility references across the agent suite. This affects:

  • Desktop accessibility specialist - ATK/AT-SPI API section removed
  • Desktop a11y testing coach - Orca screen reader section removed
  • Testing coach - Orca references removed
  • Screen reader lab - Orca simulation mode removed
  • Python specialist - Linux column removed from cross-platform reference tables
  • wxPython specialist - Linux-specific guidance removed
  • All installer scripts - Linux cron scheduling removed; shell auto-update now macOS-only
  • All documentation - "macOS/Linux" changed to "macOS" throughout

The agents, installers, and documentation now explicitly target Windows and macOS. Linux users can still install and use the agents for web and document accessibility, but desktop accessibility testing coverage (screen reader APIs, platform automation) is Windows and macOS only.

Markdown Rendering Quality

Approximately 40 agent files received systematic formatting fixes:

  • Blank lines added before bulleted lists for correct markdown spec rendering
  • Code fences changed from bare triple-backtick to language-tagged blocks (text, yaml, json) so output is not randomly syntax-highlighted
  • Trailing newlines normalized

These changes improve rendering quality in GitHub, VS Code preview, and documentation site builds.

MCP Server Documentation Overhaul

New: PDF Quick Start Guide

New standalone guide (PDF-QUICKSTART.md) for users who only need PDF scanning. Six steps from zero to working PDF accessibility scan, without touching the full agent suite.

Expanded MCP README

The MCP server README was substantially rewritten:

  • "What Works Out of the Box" matrix - shows which agents need which MCP capabilities
  • Prerequisite matrix - 9-row table showing what is required vs. optional
  • Local vs. shared server comparison - helps teams decide deployment topology
  • Actionable veraPDF setup - platform-specific install commands for Windows (winget/choco), macOS (brew), and manual download
  • Verification examples - how to confirm each prerequisite is working

VS Code 1.113 Alignment

MCP Across Agent Types

MCP servers registered in VS Code now bridge automatically to Copilot CLI and Claude agent sessions. You configure MCP once and it works everywhere - no separate setup per agent type.

Chat Customizations Editor

Chat: Open Chat Customizations provides a single UI for managing all loaded instructions, prompt files, custom agents, skills, MCP servers, and plugins.

Agent Debugging

Agent Debug Logs now cover Copilot CLI and Claude agent sessions in addition to local VS Code sessions. Use /troubleshoot in chat to analyze debug logs directly.

Integrated Browser

The editor-browser debug type supports self-signed certificates for local HTTPS development and improved browser-tab management for accessibility testing workflows.

Nested Subagent Controls

chat.subagents.allowInvocationsFromSubagents is documented with clear guidance: disabled by default in this project, enable only for deliberately recursive coordinator-worker workflows.

New Documentation

The following table lists new documentation pages added in this release.

Guide What it covers
Troubleshooting Guide MCP server connection issues, trust prompts, workspace vs. profile configuration, agent picker problems, frontmatter validation, platform-specific debugging
Subagent Architecture Guide Coordinator-worker patterns, allowlist validation, internal helper agents, nested subagent policy, platform integration
Beacon User Guide Full telemetry and beacon system documentation
PDF Quick Start Minimal-path PDF scanning setup

Updated Documentation

  • User Guide - Platform-prefixed section headings for screen reader navigation, prerequisite matrix, MCP port corrected (3100), veraPDF strategy section
  • Getting Started - New installer flags documented, JSON summary schema, CI validation workflows, Safe Validation section
  • Configuration - Four new VS Code 1.113 sections (Chat Customizations, MCP bridging, nested subagents, integrated browser)

Release Engineering

Automated Version Consistency

New scripts/check-release-consistency.js validates that version numbers match across CHANGELOG.md, plugin.yaml, mcp-server/package.json, and gemini-extension.json. A GitHub Actions workflow runs this on every push to main.

4 New CI Workflows

The following table lists new CI workflows added in this release.

Workflow Purpose
installer-dry-run.yml Validates PowerShell and Bash installer dry-runs
installer-integration.yml Runs real install/update/uninstall cycles on Windows CI
check-release-consistency.yml Catches version drift before merge
mcp-prerequisite-consistency.yml Validates MCP prerequisite documentation accuracy

CI Reliability Fixes

  • Removed UTF-8 BOM bytes from bash scripts that caused shell parser failures
  • Re-normalized line endings with updated .gitattributes
  • Replaced robocopy with Copy-Item in Windows CI to eliminate exit code 9 failures
  • Fixed bash control-flow parsing errors in installer scripts
  • Removed malformed embedded YAML step fragments from workflow definitions

Release Stats

The following table summarizes the scope of the 4.5.0 release.

Metric Value
Files changed 232
Agent definitions updated 96 (across 3 platforms)
Prompts updated 20
Skills updated 9
New shared installer modules 2
New documentation pages 4
New CI workflows 4
New CLI flags across install/update/uninstall 16
Specialized agents (total) 80
Reusable skills (total) 25
MCP tools (total) 24

How to Update

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Community-Access/accessibility-agents/main/install.ps1 | iex

macOS (Bash)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Community-Access/accessibility-agents/main/install.sh | bash

Claude Code

claude code update

Gemini CLI

gemini update accessibility-agents

MCP Server Only

cd mcp-server && npm install

You can also run with --dry-run first to see what would change before committing:

.\install.ps1 -DryRun

Recommended Reading

New users: Start with Getting Started, then follow the guided installer.

Existing users: Update to 4.5.0, then review Troubleshooting if you use MCP tools.

Document authors: The new native-tool-first remediation format means your audit reports now start with Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Acrobat instructions you can act on immediately.

Agent developers: Read Subagent Architecture for the coordinator allowlist pattern, and check Validator Rules for enforcement details.

Validation

  • All 80 agents pass validation including the new coordinator allowlist rule
  • Version consistency verified across all platform manifests
  • Installer dry-run and integration tests pass on Windows CI
  • Pre-commit hook enforces validation at commit time
  • MCP health smoke test confirms server readiness

Contributing

Found an issue? Submit a PR

We especially welcome:

  • Troubleshooting tips for your platform
  • Subagent design pattern examples
  • CI/CD integration guides for GitLab CI, CircleCI, and Jenkins
  • Translations of the native-tool-first remediation guidance for non-English Office installations

Full Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the complete technical changelog covering every change in 4.5.0 and earlier releases.

Thanks

Special thanks to:

  • Taylor Arndt - Project lead
  • Jeff Bishop - 1.113 alignment and release engineering
  • The accessibility community for pushing LLM tooling forward

Questions?

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