Lighthouse Audits

CLI Quick Start

# Install
npm install -g lighthouse

# Basic audit
lighthouse https://example.com

# Mobile performance only (faster)
lighthouse https://example.com --preset=perf --form-factor=mobile

# Output JSON for parsing
lighthouse https://example.com --output=json --output-path=./report.json

# Output HTML report
lighthouse https://example.com --output=html --output-path=./report.html

Common Flags

--preset=perf           # Performance only (skip accessibility, SEO, etc.)
--form-factor=mobile    # Mobile device emulation (default)
--form-factor=desktop   # Desktop
--throttling-method=devtools  # More accurate throttling
--only-categories=performance,accessibility  # Specific categories
--chrome-flags="--headless"   # Headless Chrome

Performance Budgets

Create budget.json:

[
  {
    "resourceSizes": [
      { "resourceType": "script", "budget": 200 },
      { "resourceType": "image", "budget": 300 },
      { "resourceType": "stylesheet", "budget": 50 },
      { "resourceType": "total", "budget": 500 }
    ],
    "resourceCounts": [
      { "resourceType": "third-party", "budget": 5 }
    ],
    "timings": [
      { "metric": "interactive", "budget": 3000 },
      { "metric": "first-contentful-paint", "budget": 1500 },
      { "metric": "largest-contentful-paint", "budget": 2500 }
    ]
  }
]

Run with budget:

lighthouse https://example.com --budget-path=./budget.json

Node API

import lighthouse from 'lighthouse';
import * as chromeLauncher from 'chrome-launcher';

async function runAudit(url) {
  const chrome = await chromeLauncher.launch({ chromeFlags: ['--headless'] });

  const result = await lighthouse(url, {
    port: chrome.port,
    onlyCategories: ['performance'],
    formFactor: 'mobile',
    throttling: {
      cpuSlowdownMultiplier: 4,
    },
  });

  await chrome.kill();

  const { performance } = result.lhr.categories;
  const { 'largest-contentful-paint': lcp } = result.lhr.audits;

  return {
    score: Math.round(performance.score * 100),
    lcp: lcp.numericValue,
  };
}

GitHub Actions

# .github/workflows/lighthouse.yml
name: Lighthouse

on:
  pull_request:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  lighthouse:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Build site
        run: npm ci && npm run build

      - name: Run Lighthouse
        uses: treosh/lighthouse-ci-action@v11
        with:
          urls: |
            http://localhost:3000
            http://localhost:3000/about
          budgetPath: ./budget.json
          uploadArtifacts: true
          temporaryPublicStorage: true
        env:
          LHCI_GITHUB_APP_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.LHCI_GITHUB_APP_TOKEN }}

Lighthouse CI (LHCI)

For full CI integration with historical tracking:

# Install
npm install -g @lhci/cli

# Initialize config
lhci wizard

Creates lighthouserc.js:

module.exports = {
  ci: {
    collect: {
      url: ['http://localhost:3000/', 'http://localhost:3000/about'],
      startServerCommand: 'npm run start',
      numberOfRuns: 3,
    },
    assert: {
      assertions: {
        'categories:performance': ['error', { minScore: 0.9 }],
        'categories:accessibility': ['warn', { minScore: 0.9 }],
        'first-contentful-paint': ['error', { maxNumericValue: 1500 }],
        'largest-contentful-paint': ['error', { maxNumericValue: 2500 }],
        'cumulative-layout-shift': ['error', { maxNumericValue: 0.1 }],
      },
    },
    upload: {
      target: 'temporary-public-storage', // or 'lhci' for self-hosted
    },
  },
};

Run:

lhci autorun

Parse JSON Report

import fs from 'fs';

const report = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('./report.json'));

// Overall scores (0-1, multiply by 100 for percentage)
const scores = {
  performance: report.categories.performance.score,
  accessibility: report.categories.accessibility.score,
  seo: report.categories.seo.score,
};

// Core Web Vitals
const vitals = {
  lcp: report.audits['largest-contentful-paint'].numericValue,
  cls: report.audits['cumulative-layout-shift'].numericValue,
  fcp: report.audits['first-contentful-paint'].numericValue,
  tbt: report.audits['total-blocking-time'].numericValue,
};

// Failed audits
const failed = Object.values(report.audits)
  .filter(a => a.score !== null && a.score < 0.9)
  .map(a => ({ id: a.id, score: a.score, title: a.title }));

Compare Builds

# Save baseline
lighthouse https://prod.example.com --output=json --output-path=baseline.json

# Run on PR
lighthouse https://preview.example.com --output=json --output-path=pr.json

# Compare (custom script)
node compare-reports.js baseline.json pr.json

Simple comparison script:

const baseline = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(process.argv[2]));
const pr = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(process.argv[3]));

const metrics = ['largest-contentful-paint', 'cumulative-layout-shift', 'total-blocking-time'];

metrics.forEach(metric => {
  const base = baseline.audits[metric].numericValue;
  const current = pr.audits[metric].numericValue;
  const diff = ((current - base) / base * 100).toFixed(1);
  const emoji = current <= base ? '✅' : '❌';
  console.log(`${emoji} ${metric}: ${diff}% (${base.toFixed(0)} → ${current.toFixed(0)})`);
});

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Inconsistent scores	Run multiple times (--number-of-runs=3), use median
Chrome not found	Set CHROME_PATH env var
Timeouts	Increase with --max-wait-for-load=60000
Auth required	Use --extra-headers or puppeteer script