Parlance

The single source of agreement between design and development.

Real-time WCAG accessibility auditing and design system contract validation for HTML, JSX, TSX, CSS, Vue, and Svelte in VS Code.

Features

Real-time auditing — catch accessibility issues as you save
Inline diagnostics — squiggly underlines with hover details and WCAG references
Quick fixes — one-click fixes for common issues (missing alt, roles, labels, tabIndex, touch targets)
Sidebar results — tree view of all issues grouped by file with severity counts
Summary panel — aggregated error/warning/info counts across all audited files
Status bar — at-a-glance issue count with project name when connected
Workspace audit — scan all files in one go

Contract validation — validate components against agreed design/code contracts
- Extracts props, state variables, event handlers, and CSS tokens from .tsx/.jsx files
- Fuzzy-matches components to contracts by name
- Flags missing required props, unhandled interaction states, and missing ARIA attributes
- Shows ✓ or ✗ on each contract in the sidebar after validation
Glossary hover — hover over token names, CSS values (16px, 1rem, #333), or Tailwind classes to see the matching Parlance token with all framework translations
Glossary autocomplete — context-aware completions:
- Inside var(--) → CSS custom property names
- Inside className="" → Tailwind class translations
- Inside style={{}} → camelCase CSS properties
Deep links — "Open in Parlance" opens the contract directly in the platform

Rule	WCAG	Level	What it checks
img-alt	1.1.1	A	Images have alt attributes
aria-roles	4.1.2	A	Interactive elements have correct ARIA
heading-order	1.3.1	A	Headings follow logical hierarchy
form-labels	1.3.1	A	Form controls have labels
contrast-ratio	1.4.3	AA	Text has sufficient contrast
keyboard-access	2.1.1	A	Elements are keyboard accessible
touch-target	2.5.5	AAA	Touch targets are 44×44px minimum

Setting	Default	Description
`parlance.auditOnSave`	`true`	Auto-audit on save
`parlance.auditOnType`	`false`	Audit as you type (may affect performance)
`parlance.wcagLevel`	`"AA"`	Target conformance level: A, AA, or AAA
`parlance.ignoredRules`	`[]`	Rule IDs to skip
`parlance.severity.contrast`	`"warning"`	Severity for contrast violations
`parlance.severity.aria`	`"error"`	Severity for ARIA violations
`parlance.severity.keyboard`	`"warning"`	Severity for keyboard violations
`parlance.apiUrl`	`https://api.parlancelabs.net`	API endpoint
`parlance.appUrl`	`https://parlancelabs.net`	Platform URL for deep links
`parlance.autoSync`	`true`	Auto-sync contracts/glossary on activation

Command	Description
Parlance: Run Accessibility Audit	Audit the active file
Parlance: Audit Entire Workspace	Audit all files in the workspace
Parlance: Validate Component Against Contract	Deep contract validation for the active component
Parlance: Sync Contracts	Refresh contract data from the platform
Parlance: Sync Glossary	Refresh glossary tokens from the platform
Parlance: Select Project	Bind the workspace to a Parlance project
Parlance: Change Project	Re-select the active project
Parlance: Set API Key	Store your Parlance API key
Parlance: Clear API Key	Disconnect from the platform
Parlance: Test Connection	Verify API connectivity and key validity
Parlance: Clear Audit Results	Remove all diagnostics