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About Dependabot auto-triage rules

Dependabot auto-triage rules are a powerful tool to help you better manage your security alerts at scale. GitHub presets are rules curated by GitHub that you can use to filter out a substantial amount of false positives. Custom auto-triage rules provide control over which alerts are ignored, snoozed, or trigger a Dependabot security update to resolve the alert.

Who can use this feature?

People with write permissions can view Dependabot auto-triage rules for the repository. People with admin permissions to a repository can enable or disable auto-triage rules for the repository, as well as create custom auto-triage rules. Additionally, organization owners and security managers can set auto-triage rules at the organization-level and optionally choose to enforce rules for repositories in the organization.

Note: Dependabot auto-triage rules are currently in beta and are subject to change.

About Dependabot auto-triage rules

Dependabot auto-triage rules allow you to instruct Dependabot to automatically triage Dependabot alerts. You can use auto-triage rules to automatically dismiss or snooze certain alerts, or specify the alerts you want Dependabot to open pull requests for.

There are two types of Dependabot auto-triage rules:

  • GitHub presets
  • Custom auto-triage rules

About GitHub presets

GitHub presets for Dependabot alerts are rules that are available for all repositories.

GitHub presets are rules curated by GitHub. The Dismiss low impact issues for development-scoped dependencies is a GitHub preset rule. This rule auto-dismisses certain types of vulnerabilities that are found in npm dependencies used in development. The rule has been curated to reduce false positives and reduce alert fatigue. The rule is enabled by default for public repositories and can be opted into for private repositories. However, you cannot modify GitHub presets. For more information, see "Using GitHub preset rules to prioritize Dependabot alerts."

About custom auto-triage rules

Custom auto-triage rules for Dependabot alerts are available on any organization-owned repositories, when you have a license for GitHub Advanced Security.

With custom auto-triage rules, you can create your own rules to automatically dismiss or reopen alerts based on targeted metadata, such as severity, package name, CWE, and more. You can also specify which alerts you want Dependabot to open pull requests for. For more information, see "Customizing auto-triage rules to prioritize Dependabot alerts."

About auto-dismissing alerts

Whilst you may find it useful to use auto-triage rules to auto-dismiss alerts, you can still reopen auto-dismissed alerts and filter to see which alerts have been auto-dismissed. For more information, see "Managing alerts that have been automatically dismissed by a Dependabot auto-triage rule."

Additionally, auto-dismissed alerts are still available for reporting and reviewing, and can be auto-reopened if the alert metadata changes, for example:

  • If you change the scope of a dependency from development to production.
  • If GitHub modifies certain metadata for the related advisory.

Auto-dismissed alerts are defined by the resolution:auto-dismiss close reason. Automatic dismissal activity is included in alert webhooks, REST and GraphQL APIs, and the audit log. For more information, see "REST API endpoints for Dependabot alerts," and the "repository_vulnerability_alert" section in "Reviewing the audit log for your organization."

Further reading