diff --git a/.drone.yml b/.drone.yml
index abc28f78258..9778f442148 100644
--- a/.drone.yml
+++ b/.drone.yml
@@ -393,13 +393,14 @@ steps:
       - packages/grafana-ui/**
 - commands:
   - npx wait-on@7.0.1 http://$HOST:$PORT
-  - pa11y-ci --config .pa11yci-pr.conf.js
+  - pa11y-ci --config e2e/pa11yci.conf.js
   depends_on:
   - grafana-server
   environment:
     GRAFANA_MISC_STATS_API_KEY:
       from_secret: grafana_misc_stats_api_key
     HOST: grafana-server
+    NO_THRESHOLDS: "false"
     PORT: 3001
   failure: always
   image: grafana/docker-puppeteer:1.1.0
@@ -864,13 +865,14 @@ steps:
       - packages/grafana-ui/**
 - commands:
   - npx wait-on@7.0.1 http://$HOST:$PORT
-  - pa11y-ci --config .pa11yci.conf.js --json > pa11y-ci-results.json
+  - pa11y-ci --config e2e/pa11yci.conf.js
   depends_on:
   - grafana-server
   environment:
     GRAFANA_MISC_STATS_API_KEY:
       from_secret: grafana_misc_stats_api_key
     HOST: grafana-server
+    NO_THRESHOLDS: "true"
     PORT: 3001
   failure: ignore
   image: grafana/docker-puppeteer:1.1.0
@@ -2984,6 +2986,6 @@ kind: secret
 name: gcr_credentials
 ---
 kind: signature
-hmac: db5485c680a21c2f4032064cd7fd892a3075ebd92cd29422d892fcc375eb6948
+hmac: 1198b1489e48a9ced211633a0325d112814553246847fc7320fb5ac2bcb32b7d
 
 ...
diff --git a/.github/CODEOWNERS b/.github/CODEOWNERS
index b9078d2b385..40200d74080 100644
--- a/.github/CODEOWNERS
+++ b/.github/CODEOWNERS
@@ -646,8 +646,6 @@ playwright.config.ts @grafana/plugins-platform-frontend
 /scripts/**/generate-transformations* @grafana/datapro
 /scripts/webpack/ @grafana/frontend-ops
 /scripts/generate-a11y-report.sh @grafana/grafana-frontend-platform
-.pa11yci.conf.js @grafana/grafana-frontend-platform
-.pa11yci-pr.conf.js @grafana/grafana-frontend-platform
 .betterer.results @grafanabot
 .betterer.ts @grafana/grafana-frontend-platform
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/pr-e2e-tests.yml b/.github/workflows/pr-e2e-tests.yml
index ad180bb24e7..bf663324f57 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pr-e2e-tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pr-e2e-tests.yml
@@ -137,42 +137,33 @@ jobs:
           path: videos
           retention-days: 1
 
-  # Skipping this for now while we fix it
-  # run-a11y-test:
-  #   needs:
-  #     - build-grafana
-  #     - build-e2e-runner
-  #   name: A11y test
-  #   runs-on: ubuntu-latest-8-cores
-  #   permissions:
-  #     contents: read
+  run-a11y-test:
+    needs:
+      - build-grafana
+    name: A11y test
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest-8-cores
+    permissions:
+      contents: read
 
-  #   steps:
-  #     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
-  #       with:
-  #         persist-credentials: false
-  #     - uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
-  #       with:
-  #         name: ${{ needs.build-grafana.outputs.artifact }}
-  #     - uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
-  #       with:
-  #         name: ${{ needs.build-e2e-runner.outputs.artifact }}
-  #     - name: chmod +x
-  #       run: chmod +x ./e2e-runner
-  #     - name: Run PR a11y test
-  #       if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
-  #       uses: dagger/dagger-for-github@e47aba410ef9bb9ed81a4d2a97df31061e5e842e
-  #       with:
-  #         verb: run
-  #         args: go run ./pkg/build/a11y --package=grafana.tar.gz
-  #           --flags="--json --config ./.pa11yci-pr.conf.js"
-  #     - name: Run non-PR a11y test
-  #       if: github.event_name != 'pull_request'
-  #       uses: dagger/dagger-for-github@e47aba410ef9bb9ed81a4d2a97df31061e5e842e
-  #       with:
-  #         verb: run
-  #         args: go run ./pkg/build/a11y --package=grafana.tar.gz
-  #           --flags="--json --config ./.pa11yci.conf.js"
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          persist-credentials: false
+      - uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          name: ${{ needs.build-grafana.outputs.artifact }}
+      - name: Run PR a11y test
+        if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
+        uses: dagger/dagger-for-github@e47aba410ef9bb9ed81a4d2a97df31061e5e842e
+        with:
+          verb: run
+          args: go run ./pkg/build/a11y --package=grafana.tar.gz
+      - name: Run non-PR a11y test
+        if: github.event_name != 'pull_request'
+        uses: dagger/dagger-for-github@e47aba410ef9bb9ed81a4d2a97df31061e5e842e
+        with:
+          verb: run
+          args: go run ./pkg/build/a11y --package=grafana.tar.gz --no-threshold-fail
 
   # This is the job that is actually required by rulesets.
   # We want to only require one job instead of all the individual tests.
diff --git a/.pa11yci.conf.js b/.pa11yci.conf.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 5c8256c3f3e..00000000000
--- a/.pa11yci.conf.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,140 +0,0 @@
-var dashboardSettings = [
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=settings',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-  },
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=annotations',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-  },
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=templating',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-  },
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=links',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-  },
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=versions',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-  },
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=permissions',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-  },
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=dashboard_json',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-  },
-];
-var config = {
-  defaults: {
-    concurrency: 1,
-    runners: ['axe'],
-    useIncognitoBrowserContext: false,
-    standard: 'WCAG2AA',
-    chromeLaunchConfig: {
-      args: ['--no-sandbox'],
-    },
-    // see https://github.com/grafana/grafana/pull/41693#issuecomment-979921463 for context
-    // on why we're ignoring singleValue/react-select-*-placeholder elements
-    hideElements: '#updateVersion, [class*="-singleValue"], [id^="react-select-"][id$="-placeholder"]',
-  },
-
-  urls: [
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/login',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
-    },
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/login', //skip password and login
-      actions: [
-        "wait for element input[name='user'] to be added",
-        "set field input[name='user'] to admin",
-        "set field input[name='password'] to admin",
-        "click element button[data-testid='data-testid Login button']",
-        "wait for element button[data-testid='data-testid Skip change password button'] to be visible",
-      ],
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
-    },
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/?orgId=1',
-      wait: 500,
-    },
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
-    },
-    ...dashboardSettings,
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/?orgId=1&search=open',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
-    },
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/alerting/list',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
-    },
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/datasources',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
-    },
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/org/users',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
-    },
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/org/teams',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
-    },
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/plugins',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
-    },
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/org',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
-    },
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/org/apikeys',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
-    },
-    {
-      url: '${HOST}/dashboards',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
-    },
-  ],
-};
-
-function myPa11yCiConfiguration(urls, defaults) {
-  const HOST_SERVER = process.env.HOST || 'localhost';
-  const PORT_SERVER = process.env.PORT || '3001';
-  for (var idx = 0; idx < urls.length; idx++) {
-    urls[idx] = { ...urls[idx], url: urls[idx].url.replace('${HOST}', `${HOST_SERVER}:${PORT_SERVER}`) };
-  }
-  return {
-    defaults: defaults,
-    urls: urls,
-  };
-}
-
-module.exports = myPa11yCiConfiguration(config.urls, config.defaults);
diff --git a/.pa11yci-pr.conf.js b/e2e/pa11yci.conf.js
similarity index 52%
rename from .pa11yci-pr.conf.js
rename to e2e/pa11yci.conf.js
index 208b4cd9c58..63e274e16bf 100644
--- a/.pa11yci-pr.conf.js
+++ b/e2e/pa11yci.conf.js
@@ -1,50 +1,4 @@
-var dashboardSettings = [
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=settings',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-    threshold: 0,
-  },
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=annotations',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-    threshold: 0,
-  },
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=templating',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-    threshold: 0,
-  },
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=links',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-    threshold: 0,
-  },
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=versions',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-    threshold: 0,
-  },
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=permissions',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-    // TODO: improve the accessibility of the permission tab https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/77203
-    threshold: 5,
-  },
-  {
-    url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=dashboard_json',
-    wait: 500,
-    rootElement: '.main-view',
-    threshold: 2,
-  },
-];
-
-var config = {
+const config = {
   defaults: {
     concurrency: 1,
     runners: ['axe'],
@@ -57,18 +11,16 @@ var config = {
     // see https://github.com/grafana/grafana/pull/41693#issuecomment-979921463 for context
     // on why we're ignoring singleValue/react-select-*-placeholder elements
     hideElements: '#updateVersion, [class*="-singleValue"], [id^="react-select-"][id$="-placeholder"]',
+    reporters: ['cli', ['json', { fileName: './pa11y-ci-results.json' }]],
   },
 
   urls: [
     {
       url: '${HOST}/login',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
       threshold: 0,
     },
     {
       url: '${HOST}/login',
-      wait: 500,
       actions: [
         "wait for element input[name='user'] to be added",
         "set field input[name='user'] to admin",
@@ -77,74 +29,84 @@ var config = {
         "wait for element button[data-testid='data-testid Skip change password button'] to be visible",
       ],
       threshold: 2,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
     },
     {
       url: '${HOST}/?orgId=1',
-      wait: 500,
       threshold: 0,
     },
     {
       url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
       threshold: 0,
     },
-    ...dashboardSettings,
+
+    // Dashboard settings
+    {
+      url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=settings',
+      threshold: 0,
+    },
+    {
+      url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=annotations',
+      threshold: 0,
+    },
+    {
+      url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=variables',
+      threshold: 0,
+    },
+    {
+      url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=links',
+      threshold: 0,
+    },
+    {
+      url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=versions',
+      threshold: 0,
+    },
+    {
+      url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=permissions',
+      // TODO: improve the accessibility of the permission tab https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/77203
+      threshold: 5,
+    },
+    {
+      url: '${HOST}/d/O6f11TZWk/panel-tests-bar-gauge?orgId=1&editview=dashboard_json',
+      threshold: 2,
+    },
+
+    // Misc
     {
       url: '${HOST}/?orgId=1&search=open',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
       threshold: 0,
     },
     {
       url: '${HOST}/alerting/list',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
       // the unified alerting promotion alert's content contrast is too low
       // see https://github.com/grafana/grafana/pull/41829
       threshold: 7,
     },
     {
       url: '${HOST}/datasources',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
       threshold: 0,
     },
     {
       url: '${HOST}/org/users',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
       threshold: 2,
     },
     {
       url: '${HOST}/org/teams',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
       threshold: 0,
     },
     {
       url: '${HOST}/plugins',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
       threshold: 0,
     },
     {
       url: '${HOST}/org',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
       threshold: 2,
     },
     {
       url: '${HOST}/org/apikeys',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
       threshold: 4,
     },
     {
       url: '${HOST}/dashboards',
-      wait: 500,
-      rootElement: '.main-view',
       threshold: 2,
     },
   ],
@@ -153,9 +115,21 @@ var config = {
 function myPa11yCiConfiguration(urls, defaults) {
   const HOST_SERVER = process.env.HOST || 'localhost';
   const PORT_SERVER = process.env.PORT || '3001';
-  for (var idx = 0; idx < urls.length; idx++) {
-    urls[idx] = { ...urls[idx], url: urls[idx].url.replace('${HOST}', `${HOST_SERVER}:${PORT_SERVER}`) };
-  }
+  const noThresholds = process.env.NO_THRESHOLDS === 'true';
+
+  urls = urls.map((test, index) => {
+    return {
+      ...test,
+      url: test.url.replace('${HOST}', `${HOST_SERVER}:${PORT_SERVER}`),
+      screenCapture: `./screenshots/screenshot-${index}.png`,
+      rootElement: '.main-view',
+      wait: 500,
+
+      // Depending on NO_THRESHOLDS (--no-threshold-fail in the dagger command), clear the thresholds
+      // to allow pa11y to fail the check and include error details in the results file
+      threshold: noThresholds ? undefined : test.threshold,
+    };
+  });
 
   return {
     defaults: defaults,
diff --git a/pkg/build/a11y/README.md b/pkg/build/a11y/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d5fc311d696
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/build/a11y/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# Pa11y accessability tests
+
+We use pa11y to run some automated simple accessability tests. They're ran with dagger to help orchestrate starting server + tests in a reproducable manner.
+
+To run the tests locally:
+
+1. Install dagger locally https://docs.dagger.io/install/
+2. Grab the grafana.tar.gz artifact by either
+   1. Downloading it from the Github Action artifact from your PR
+   1. Build it locally with:
+      ```sh
+      dagger run go run ./pkg/build/cmd artifacts -a targz:grafana:linux/amd64 --grafana-dir="$PWD" > dist/files.txt
+      cat dist/files.txt # Will output the path to the grafana.tar.gz 
+      ```
+3. Run the dagger pipeline with:
+   ```sh
+   dagger -v run go run ./pkg/build/a11y --package=(full path to .tar.gz) --results=./pa11y-ci-results.json
+   ```
+   The JSON results file will be saved to the file from the `--results` arg 
+4. If they fail and you want to see the full output
+   1. Run the dagger command with `dagger -vE [...]`
+   2. At the end, arrow up to the exec pa11y-ci segment and hit Enter
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/pkg/build/a11y/main.go b/pkg/build/a11y/main.go
index acc74e26248..444e59213d2 100644
--- a/pkg/build/a11y/main.go
+++ b/pkg/build/a11y/main.go
@@ -6,12 +6,16 @@ import (
 	"log"
 	"os"
 	"os/signal"
-	"path/filepath"
 
 	"dagger.io/dagger"
 	"github.com/urfave/cli/v3"
 )
 
+var (
+	grafanaHost = "grafana"
+	grafanaPort = 3001
+)
+
 func main() {
 	ctx, cancel := signal.NotifyContext(context.Background(), os.Interrupt)
 	defer cancel()
@@ -49,8 +53,21 @@ func NewApp() *cli.Command {
 				TakesFile: true,
 			},
 			&cli.StringFlag{
-				Name:  "flags",
-				Usage: "Flags to pass through to the e2e runner",
+				Name:      "config",
+				Usage:     "Path to the pa11y config file to use",
+				Value:     "e2e/pa11yci.conf.js",
+				Validator: mustBeFile("config", true),
+				TakesFile: true,
+			},
+			&cli.StringFlag{
+				Name:      "results",
+				Usage:     "Path to the pa11y results file to export",
+				TakesFile: true,
+			},
+			&cli.BoolFlag{
+				Name:  "no-threshold-fail",
+				Usage: "Don't fail the task if any of the tests fail. Use this in combination with --results to list all violations even if they're within thresholds",
+				Value: false,
 			},
 		},
 		Action: run,
@@ -61,26 +78,29 @@ func run(ctx context.Context, cmd *cli.Command) error {
 	grafanaDir := cmd.String("grafana-dir")
 	targzPath := cmd.String("package")
 	licensePath := cmd.String("license")
-	runnerFlags := cmd.String("flags")
+	pa11yConfigPath := cmd.String("config")
+	pa11yResultsPath := cmd.String("results")
+	noThresholdFail := cmd.Bool("no-threshold-fail")
 
 	d, err := dagger.Connect(ctx)
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to connect to Dagger: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	yarnCache := d.CacheVolume("yarn")
-
-	//nolint:gosec
-	nvmrcContents, err := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(grafanaDir, ".nvmrc"))
-	if err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("failed to read .nvmrc file: %w", err)
-	}
-	nodeVersion := string(nvmrcContents)
-
-	grafana := d.Host().Directory(grafanaDir, dagger.HostDirectoryOpts{
-		Exclude: []string{"node_modules", "*.tar.gz"},
+	// Explicitly only the files used by the grafana-server service
+	hostSrc := d.Host().Directory(grafanaDir, dagger.HostDirectoryOpts{
+		Include: []string{
+			"./devenv",
+			"./e2e/test-plugins", // Directory is included so provisioning works, but they're not actually build
+			"./scripts/grafana-server/custom.ini",
+			"./scripts/grafana-server/start-server",
+			"./scripts/grafana-server/kill-server",
+			"./scripts/grafana-server/variables",
+		},
 	})
+
 	targz := d.Host().File(targzPath)
+	pa11yConfig := d.Host().File(pa11yConfigPath)
 
 	var license *dagger.File
 	if licensePath != "" {
@@ -88,27 +108,34 @@ func run(ctx context.Context, cmd *cli.Command) error {
 	}
 
 	svc, err := GrafanaService(ctx, d, GrafanaServiceOpts{
-		GrafanaDir:   grafana,
+		HostSrc:      hostSrc,
 		GrafanaTarGz: targz,
 		License:      license,
-		YarnCache:    yarnCache,
-		NodeVersion:  nodeVersion,
 	})
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to create Grafana service: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	c := RunTest(d, svc, grafana, yarnCache, nodeVersion, runnerFlags)
-	c, err = c.Sync(ctx)
-	if err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("failed to run a11y test suite: %w", err)
+	c, runErr := RunTest(ctx, d, svc, pa11yConfig, noThresholdFail, pa11yResultsPath)
+	if runErr != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("failed to run a11y test suite: %w", runErr)
 	}
 
-	code, err := c.ExitCode(ctx)
-	if err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("failed to get exit code of a11y test suite: %w", err)
+	c, syncErr := c.Sync(ctx)
+	if syncErr != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("failed to sync a11y test suite: %w", syncErr)
 	}
-	if code != 0 {
+
+	code, codeErr := c.ExitCode(ctx)
+	if codeErr != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("failed to get exit code of a11y test suite: %w", codeErr)
+	}
+
+	if code == 0 {
+		log.Printf("a11y tests passed with exit code %d", code)
+	} else if noThresholdFail {
+		log.Printf("a11y tests failed with exit code %d, but noFail is true", code)
+	} else {
 		return fmt.Errorf("a11y tests failed with exit code %d", code)
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/build/a11y/run.go b/pkg/build/a11y/run.go
index 4fbe2910018..b736dc9d6db 100644
--- a/pkg/build/a11y/run.go
+++ b/pkg/build/a11y/run.go
@@ -1,25 +1,48 @@
 package main
 
 import (
+	"context"
 	"fmt"
 
 	"dagger.io/dagger"
 )
 
 func RunTest(
+	ctx context.Context,
 	d *dagger.Client,
-	svc *dagger.Service,
-	src *dagger.Directory, cache *dagger.CacheVolume,
-	nodeVersion, runnerFlags string) *dagger.Container {
-	command := fmt.Sprintf(
-		"./e2e-runner a11y --start-grafana=false"+
-			" --grafana-host grafana --grafana-port 3001 %s", runnerFlags)
-
-	return GrafanaFrontend(d, cache, nodeVersion, src).
-		WithExec([]string{"/bin/sh", "-c", "apt-get update && apt-get install -y git curl"}).
-		WithExec([]string{"curl", "-LO", "https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb"}).
-		WithExec([]string{"apt-get", "install", "-y", "./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb"}).
+	grafanaService *dagger.Service,
+	pa11yConfig *dagger.File,
+	noThresholdFail bool,
+	pa11yResultsPath string,
+) (*dagger.Container, error) {
+	// docker-puppeteer container already has Chrome and Pa11y installed in it
+	pa11yContainer := d.Container().From("grafana/docker-puppeteer:1.1.0").
 		WithWorkdir("/src").
-		WithServiceBinding("grafana", svc).
-		WithExec([]string{"/bin/bash", "-c", command}, dagger.ContainerWithExecOpts{Expect: dagger.ReturnTypeAny})
+		WithExec([]string{"mkdir", "-p", "./screenshots"}). // not yet exported
+		WithEnvVariable("HOST", grafanaHost).
+		WithEnvVariable("PORT", fmt.Sprint(grafanaPort))
+
+	if noThresholdFail {
+		// This logic is non-intuitive - --no-threshold-fail will make pa11y fail (by removing thresholds from the config)
+		// so it can write all violations to the results file. This failure is then ignored by the caller in main.go.
+		// Otherwise, pa11y ignores violations if they're within the thresholds and doesn't include them in the results file
+		pa11yContainer = pa11yContainer.
+			WithEnvVariable("NO_THRESHOLDS", "true")
+	}
+
+	pa11yContainer = pa11yContainer.
+		WithServiceBinding(grafanaHost, grafanaService).
+		WithMountedFile("pa11yci-config.js", pa11yConfig).
+		WithExec([]string{"pa11y-ci", "--config", "pa11yci-config.js"}, dagger.ContainerWithExecOpts{
+			Expect: dagger.ReturnTypeAny, // allow this to fail here so we can handle non-zero exit codes at the caller
+		})
+
+	if pa11yResultsPath != "" {
+		_, err := pa11yContainer.File("/src/pa11y-ci-results.json").Export(ctx, pa11yResultsPath)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get pa11y results: %w", err)
+		}
+	}
+
+	return pa11yContainer, nil
 }
diff --git a/pkg/build/a11y/service.go b/pkg/build/a11y/service.go
index 72e13f61297..c866bc60520 100644
--- a/pkg/build/a11y/service.go
+++ b/pkg/build/a11y/service.go
@@ -9,77 +9,31 @@ import (
 	"dagger.io/dagger"
 )
 
-func NodeImage(version string) string {
-	return fmt.Sprintf("node:%s-slim", strings.TrimPrefix(strings.TrimSpace(version), "v"))
-}
-
 type GrafanaServiceOpts struct {
-	GrafanaDir   *dagger.Directory
+	HostSrc      *dagger.Directory
 	GrafanaTarGz *dagger.File
 	License      *dagger.File
-	YarnCache    *dagger.CacheVolume
-	NodeVersion  string
-}
-
-func Frontend(src *dagger.Directory) *dagger.Directory {
-	return src.
-		WithoutFile("go.mod").
-		WithoutFile("go.sum").
-		WithoutFile("go.work").
-		WithoutFile("go.work.sum").
-		WithoutDirectory(".github").
-		WithoutDirectory("docs").
-		WithoutDirectory("pkg").
-		WithoutDirectory("apps").
-		WithoutDirectory("videos")
-}
-
-func WithGrafanaFrontend(c *dagger.Container, src *dagger.Directory) *dagger.Container {
-	return c.WithDirectory("/src", Frontend(src), dagger.ContainerWithDirectoryOpts{
-		Exclude: []string{
-			"*drone*",
-			"*.go",
-			"*.md",
-		},
-	})
-}
-
-func WithYarnCache(c *dagger.Container, cache *dagger.CacheVolume) *dagger.Container {
-	return c.
-		WithWorkdir("/src").
-		WithMountedCache("/yarn/cache", cache)
-}
-
-func GrafanaFrontend(d *dagger.Client, yarnCache *dagger.CacheVolume, nodeVersion string, grafanaDir *dagger.Directory) *dagger.Container {
-	container := d.Container().From(NodeImage(nodeVersion))
-	container = WithGrafanaFrontend(container, grafanaDir)
-	return WithYarnCache(container, yarnCache).
-		WithEnvVariable("YARN_CACHE_FOLDER", "/yarn/cache").
-		WithExec([]string{"yarn", "install", "--immutable"})
 }
 
 func GrafanaService(ctx context.Context, d *dagger.Client, opts GrafanaServiceOpts) (*dagger.Service, error) {
-	src := GrafanaFrontend(d, opts.YarnCache, opts.NodeVersion, opts.GrafanaDir)
-
 	container := d.Container().From("alpine:3").
 		WithExec([]string{"apk", "add", "--no-cache", "bash", "tar", "netcat-openbsd"}).
 		WithMountedFile("/src/grafana.tar.gz", opts.GrafanaTarGz).
 		WithExec([]string{"mkdir", "-p", "/src/grafana"}).
 		WithExec([]string{"tar", "--strip-components=1", "-xzf", "/src/grafana.tar.gz", "-C", "/src/grafana"}).
-		WithDirectory("/src/grafana/devenv", src.Directory("/src/devenv")).
-		WithDirectory("/src/grafana/e2e", src.Directory("/src/e2e")).
-		WithDirectory("/src/grafana/scripts", src.Directory("/src/scripts")).
-		WithDirectory("/src/grafana/tools", src.Directory("/src/tools")).
+		WithDirectory("/src/grafana/devenv", opts.HostSrc.Directory("./devenv")).
+		WithDirectory("/src/grafana/e2e/test-plugins", opts.HostSrc.Directory("./e2e/test-plugins")).
+		WithDirectory("/src/grafana/scripts", opts.HostSrc.Directory("./scripts")).
 		WithWorkdir("/src/grafana").
 		WithEnvVariable("GF_APP_MODE", "development").
-		WithEnvVariable("GF_SERVER_HTTP_PORT", "3001").
+		WithEnvVariable("GF_SERVER_HTTP_PORT", fmt.Sprint(grafanaPort)).
 		WithEnvVariable("GF_SERVER_ROUTER_LOGGING", "1").
-		WithExposedPort(3001)
+		WithExposedPort(grafanaPort)
 
 	var licenseArg string
 	if opts.License != nil {
-		container = container.WithMountedFile("/src/license.jwt", opts.License)
 		licenseArg = "/src/license.jwt"
+		container = container.WithMountedFile(licenseArg, opts.License)
 	}
 
 	// We add all GF_ environment variables to allow for overriding Grafana configuration.
diff --git a/scripts/drone/steps/lib.star b/scripts/drone/steps/lib.star
index bcd218d67f8..50b23341467 100644
--- a/scripts/drone/steps/lib.star
+++ b/scripts/drone/steps/lib.star
@@ -649,21 +649,13 @@ def test_a11y_frontend_step(ver_mode, port = 3001):
     commands = [
         # Note - this runs in a container running node 14, which does not support the -y option to npx
         "npx wait-on@7.0.1 http://$HOST:$PORT",
+        "pa11y-ci --config e2e/pa11yci.conf.js",
     ]
     failure = "ignore"
+    no_thresholds = "true"
     if ver_mode == "pr":
-        commands.extend(
-            [
-                "pa11y-ci --config .pa11yci-pr.conf.js",
-            ],
-        )
         failure = "always"
-    else:
-        commands.extend(
-            [
-                "pa11y-ci --config .pa11yci.conf.js --json > pa11y-ci-results.json",
-            ],
-        )
+        no_thresholds = "false"
 
     return {
         "name": "test-a11y-frontend",
@@ -676,6 +668,7 @@ def test_a11y_frontend_step(ver_mode, port = 3001):
             "GRAFANA_MISC_STATS_API_KEY": from_secret("grafana_misc_stats_api_key"),
             "HOST": "grafana-server",
             "PORT": port,
+            "NO_THRESHOLDS": no_thresholds,
         },
         "failure": failure,
         "commands": commands,