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CodeQL CLI SARIF output

You can output SARIF from the CodeQL CLI and share static analysis results with other systems.

GitHub CodeQL is licensed on a per-user basis upon installation. You can use CodeQL only for certain tasks under the license restrictions. For more information, see "About the GitHub CodeQL license."

If you have a GitHub Enterprise account and GitHub Advanced Security license, you can use CodeQL for automated analysis, continuous integration and continuous delivery. You can create an enterprise account by contacting the sales team. For more information, see "About GitHub Advanced Security."

Note: This article was migrated from the CodeQL documentation website in January 2023.

About SARIF output

SARIF is designed to represent the output of a broad range of static analysis tools, and there are many features in the SARIF specification that are considered “optional”. This document details the output produced when using the format type sarifv2.1.0, which corresponds to the SARIF v2.1.0.csd1 specification. For more information on selecting a file format for your analysis results, see the database analyze command in the CodeQL documentation.

SARIF specification and schema

This article is intended to be read alongside the detailed SARIF specification. For more information on the specification and the SARIF schema, see the SARIF specification documentation.

Change notes

Changes between versions

CodeQL versionFormat typeChanges
2.0.0sarifv2.1.0First version of this format.

Future changes to the output

The output produced for a given specific format type (for example, sarifv2.1.0) may change in future CodeQL releases. We will endeavor to maintain backwards compatibility with consumers of the generated SARIF by ensuring that:

  • No field which is marked as “Always” being generated will be removed.

  • The circumstances under which “Optional” fields are generated may change. Consumers of the CodeQL SARIF output should be robust to the presence or absence of these fields.

New output fields may be added in future releases under the same format type–these are not considered to break backwards compatibility, and consumers should be robust to the presence of newly added fields.

New format argument types may be added in future versions of CodeQL—for example, to support new versions of SARIF. These have no guarantee of backwards compatibility, unless explicitly documented.

Generated SARIF objects

This details each SARIF component that may be generated, along with any specific circumstances. We omit any properties that are never generated.

sarifLog object

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
$schemaAlwaysProvides a link to the SARIF schema.
versionAlwaysThe version of the SARIF used to generate the output.
runsAlwaysAn array containing a single run object, for one language.

run object

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
toolAlways
originalUriBaseIdsAlwaysA dictionary of uriBaseIds to artifactLocations representing the original locations on the analysis machine. At a minimum, this will contain the %SRCROOT% uriBaseId, which represents the root location on the analysis machine of the source code for the analyzed project. Each artifactLocation will contain the uri and description properties.
artifactsAlwaysAn array containing at least one artifact object for every file referenced in a result.
resultsAlways
newLineSequencesAlways
columnKindAlways
propertiesAlwaysThe properties dictionary will contain the semmle.formatSpecifier, which identifies the format specifier passed to the CodeQL CLI.

tool object

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
driverAlways

toolComponent object

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
nameAlwaysSet to “CodeQL command-line toolchain” for output from the CodeQL CLI tools. Note, if the output was generated using a different tool a different name is reported, and the format may not be as described here.
organizationAlwaysSet to “GitHub”.
versionAlwaysSet to the CodeQL release version e.g. “2.0.0”.
rulesAlwaysAn array of reportingDescriptor objects that represent rules. This array will contain, at a minimum, all the rules that were run during this analysis, but may contain rules which were available but not run. For more detail about enabling queries, see defaultConfiguration.

reportingDescriptor object (for rule)

reportingDescriptor objects may be used in multiple places in the SARIF specification. When a reportingDescriptor is included� in the rules array of a toolComponent object it has the following properties.

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
idAlwaysWill contain the @id property specified in the query that defines the rule, which is usually of the format language/rule-name (for example cpp/unsafe-format-string). If your organization defines the @opaqueid property in the query it will be used instead.
nameAlwaysWill contain the @id property specified in the query. See the id property above for an example.
shortDescriptionAlwaysWill contain the @name property specified in the query that defines the rule.
fullDescriptionAlwaysWill contain the @description property specified in the query that defines the rule.
defaultConfigurationAlwaysA reportingConfiguration object, with the enabled property set to true or false, and a level property set according to the @severity property specified in the query that defines the rule. Omitted if the @severity property was not specified.

artifact object

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
locationAlwaysAn artifactLocation object.
indexAlwaysThe index of the artifact object.
contentsOptionallyIf results are generated using the --sarif-add-file-contents flag, and the source code is available at the time the SARIF file is generated, then the contents property is populated with an artifactContent object, with the text property set.

artifactLocation object

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
uriAlways
indexAlways
uriBaseIdOptionallyIf the file is relative to some known abstract location, such as the root source location on the analysis machine, this will be set.

result object

The composition of the results is dependent on the options provided to CodeQL. By default, the results are grouped by unique message format string and primary location. Thus, two results that occur at the same location with the same underlying message, will appear as a single result in the output. This behavior can be disabled by using the flag --ungroup-results, in which case no results are grouped.

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
ruleIdAlwaysSee the description of the id property in reportingDescriptor object (for rule) .
ruleIndexAlways
messageAlwaysA message describing the problem(s) occurring at this location. This message may be a SARIF “Message with placeholder”, containing links that refer to locations in the relatedLocations property.
locationsAlwaysAn array containing a single location object.
partialFingerprintsAlwaysA dictionary from named fingerprint types to the fingerprint. This will contain, at a minimum, a value for the primaryLocationLineHash, which provides a fingerprint based on the context of the primary location.
codeFlowsOptionallyThis array may be populated with one or more codeFlow objects if the query that defines the rule for this result is of @kind path-problem.
relatedLocationsOptionallyThis array will be populated if the query that defines the rule for this result has a message with placeholder options. Each unique location is included once.
suppressionsOptionallyIf the result is suppressed, then this will contain a single suppression object, with the @kind property set to IN_SOURCE. If this result is not suppressed, but there is at least one result that has a suppression, then this will be set to an empty array, otherwise it will not be set.

location object

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
physicalLocationAlways
idOptionallylocation objects that appear in the relatedLocations array of a result object may contain the id property.
messageOptionallylocation objects may contain the message property if:

- They appear in the relatedLocations array of a result object may contain the message property.

- They appear in the threadFlowLocation.location property.

physicalLocation object

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
artifactLocationAlways
regionOptionallyIf the given physicalLocation exists in a text file, such as a source code file, then the region property may be present.
contextRegionOptionallyMay be present if this location has an associated snippet.

region object

There are two types of region object produced by CodeQL:

  • Line/column offset regions

  • Character offset and length regions

Any region produced by CodeQL may be specified in either format, and consumers should robustly handle either type.

For line/column offset regions, the following properties will be set:

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
startLineAlways
startColumnOptionallyNot included if equal to the default value of 1.
endLineOptionallyNot included if identical to startLine.
endColumnAlways
snippetOptionally

For character offset and length regions, the following properties will be set:

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
charOffsetOptionallyProvided if startLine, startColumn, endLine, and endColumn are not populated.
charLengthOptionallyProvided if startLine, startColumn, endLine, and endColumn are not populated.
snippetOptionally

codeFlow object

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
threadFlowsAlways

threadFlow object

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
locationsAlways

threadFlowLocation object

JSON property nameWhen is this generated?Notes
locationAlways