Getting Started

Unlighthouse CLI

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Last updated by
Harlan Wilton
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Introduction

The Unlighthouse CLI provides the quickest way to scan your website's Google Lighthouse performance. It requires minimal setup and provides instant feedback through a local development interface.

New to Lighthouse? Check out Google's guide on Lighthouse performance scoring.

Setup

Requirements

  • Node.js 20.x or higher
  • Chrome or Chromium browser (will be auto-installed if missing)

Quick Start

npx unlighthouse --site <your-site>
Unlighthouse automatically detects and uses your system Chrome or Chromium installation. If neither is found, it will download a compatible Chromium binary.

How It Works

When you run the CLI command:

  1. Unlighthouse crawls your site starting from the provided URL
  2. Discovers all internal pages automatically
  3. Runs Google Lighthouse audits on each page
  4. Opens a local UI to view results in real-time

For detailed CLI options and configuration, see the CLI Integration guide.

Platform-Specific Notes

Windows WSL

Windows Subsystem for Linux users may encounter connection issues with the Chrome instance.

For WSL-specific solutions, see Common Errors Guide.

Next Steps

Integrations

Unlighthouse can be integrated into your development workflow:

Explore all available integrations.

Configuration

Customize Unlighthouse behavior with a configuration file:

// unlighthouse.config.ts
import { defineUnlighthouseConfig } from 'unlighthouse/config'

export default defineUnlighthouseConfig({
  site: 'https://example.com',
  scanner: {
    samples: 3,
    throttle: true,
  },
})

Learn more in the Configuration Guide.

Getting Help

Need assistance? Join our community:

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