/web-launch-check

Run this before any production website launch to catch missing legal pages, broken SEO, accessibility violations, or compliance gaps that would expose the user to legal risk or hurt search ranking.

When to use

• Before pushing a marketing site, landing page, or web app to production.
• After a major redesign that changed page structure, routes, or third-party integrations.
• Before adding analytics or tracking scripts.
• When taking over an existing site to assess current state.

What it checks

Layer 1 — Legal pages (CRITICAL — block launch)

Layer 2 — Consent & tracking (HIGH)

• Cookie consent banner present before any non-essential cookie is set.
• Reject button as prominent as Accept.
• Tracking scripts (Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, etc.) blocked until consent.
• "Do Not Sell or Share" link if California users (CCPA/CPRA).
• Global Privacy Control signal honored.

Layer 3 — Sessions & auth (HIGH)

• Cookies have Secure, HttpOnly, SameSite=Lax (or Strict).
• Auth tokens not in localStorage if long-lived.
• Logout invalidates session server-side.
• CSRF protection on state-changing requests.
• Session expiry explicit; idle timeout for sensitive flows.

Layer 4 — SEO essentials (HIGH)

• Every page has unique <title> (≤ 60 chars).
• Every page has unique <meta name="description"> (~150 chars).
• Every page has <link rel="canonical">.
• Every page has Open Graph tags (og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url, og:type).
• Every page has Twitter Card tags.
• Structured data (JSON-LD) where relevant (Organization, Article, Product, BreadcrumbList, FAQ).
• <html lang> set.
• Exactly one <h1> per page; heading hierarchy correct.
• Alt text on every meaningful image.

Layer 5 — Site-wide SEO files (HIGH)

• robots.txt at root with explicit rules and sitemap reference.
• sitemap.xml at root, all canonical URLs, lastmod dates.
• /.well-known/security.txt (recommended).
• 404 page returns HTTP 404.
• 500 page exists for server errors.

Layer 6 — Performance / Core Web Vitals (HIGH)

• LCP ≤ 2.5s on 75th percentile mobile.
• INP ≤ 200ms.
• CLS ≤ 0.1.
• Total blocking JS ≤ 250 KB gzipped (or justified).

Layer 7 — Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA) (HIGH)

• Keyboard reachable everywhere.
• Focus visible.
• Color contrast ≥ 4.5:1 (text), ≥ 3:1 (large text and UI).
• Form labels associated.
• Error messages with aria-describedby.
• prefers-reduced-motion respected.
• Skip-to-content link present.

Layer 8 — Compliance frameworks (situational)

• GDPR (EU users): lawful basis documented, DSAR endpoint, 72-hour breach notification plan.
• CCPA/CPRA (California): "Do Not Sell or Share" link.
• HIPAA (health data): BAAs with vendors, encryption verified.
• PCI-DSS (cards): no raw card numbers handled; tokenization via Stripe/Adyen.

Layer 9 — Forms & PII (HIGH)

• HTTPS-only.
• Server-side validation on every form.
• Rate limiting on signup, login, contact, password reset.
• CAPTCHA on public forms.
• No PII echoed in URLs (?email=...).
• Email verification before privileged actions.

Layer 10 — Email deliverability (MEDIUM, if applicable)

• DMARC / DKIM / SPF set up.
• Unsubscribe link in every marketing email.
• Physical address in marketing email footer (CAN-SPAM).

How the check runs

1. Detect the framework (Next.js, Astro, SvelteKit, Nuxt, plain HTML, etc.) by reading the project structure.
2. Walk the routes / pages — collect what exists and what's referenced.
3. Read the build output if available; otherwise inspect source.
4. Check each layer above; mark each finding Critical | High | Medium | Low | Pass.
5. Suggest a fix snippet for each failure.

Output format

## Verdict: GO | CONDITIONAL (fix Critical + High) | NO-GO

## Executive summary
2–3 sentences. Most important risk first.

## Findings by layer

### Layer 1 — Legal pages
- [Critical] /privacy missing — add a route and a stub policy.
- [High]    /terms missing — needed because there's a signup form at /signup.

### Layer 4 — SEO essentials
- [High]    No <meta name="description"> on /pricing, /features, /blog/*.
- [Medium]  Open Graph tags missing site-wide.

### Layer 7 — Accessibility
- [High]    Color contrast 3.2:1 on primary CTA — needs ≥ 4.5:1.
…

## Quick wins
3–5 items the user can ship in one PR.

## Defer-with-issue
Items not blocking launch but tracked.

Do / don't

Do:

• Always check every layer. Don't skip layers because the project "is just a landing page."
• Cite the exact file and line for each finding.
• Provide a fix snippet for every High and Critical finding.

Don't:

• Don't let style/preference issues block the verdict — only Critical and High block.
• Don't recommend frameworks; work with what's there.
• Don't paste full legal text — point to templates (see /legal-pages skill).