Note: This article was migrated from the CodeQL documentation website in January 2023.
Note: The CodeQL package management functionality, including CodeQL packs, is currently available as a beta release and is subject to change. During the beta release, CodeQL packs are available only using GitHub Packages - the Container registry. To use this beta functionality, install the latest version of the CodeQL CLI bundle from: https://github.com/github/codeql-action/releases.
About CodeQL packs
CodeQL packs are used to create, share, depend on, and run CodeQL queries and libraries. You can publish your own CodeQL packs and download packs created by others. CodeQL packs contain queries, library files, query suites, and metadata.
There are two types of CodeQL packs: query packs and library packs.
-
Query packs are designed to be run. When a query pack is published, the bundle includes all the transitive dependencies and pre-compiled representations of each query, in addition to the query sources. This ensures consistent and efficient execution of the queries in the pack.
-
Library packs are designed to be used by query packs (or other library packs) and do not contain queries themselves. The libraries are not compiled separately.
You can use the package management commands in the CodeQL CLI to create CodeQL packs, add dependencies to packs, and install or update dependencies. For more information, see “Creating and working with CodeQL packs.” You can also publish and download CodeQL packs using the CodeQL CLI. For more information, see “Publishing and using CodeQL packs.”
The standard CodeQL packages for all supported languages are published in the Container registry. The CodeQL repository contains source files for the standard CodeQL packs for all supported languages.
CodeQL pack structure
A CodeQL pack must contain a file called qlpack.yml
in its root directory. In the qlpack.yml
file, the name:
field must have a value that follows the format of <scope>/<pack>
, where <scope>
is the GitHub organization or user account that the pack will be published to and <pack>
is the name of the pack. Additionally, query packs and library packs with CodeQL tests contain a codeql-pack.lock.yml
file that contains the resolved dependencies of the pack. This file is generated during a call to the codeql pack install
command, is not meant to be edited by hand, and should be added to your version control system.
The other files and directories within the pack should be logically organized. For example, typically:
-
Queries are organized into directories for specific categories.
-
Queries for specific products, libraries, and frameworks are organized into their own top-level directories.
About published packs
When a pack is published for use in analyses, the codeql pack create
or codeql pack publish
command verifies that the content is complete and also adds some additional pieces of content to it:
-
For query packs, a copy of each of the library packs it depends on, in the precise versions it has been developed with. Users of the query pack won't need to download these library packs separately.
-
For query packs, precompiled representations of each of the queries. These are faster to execute than it would be to compile the QL source for the query at each analysis.
Most of this data is located in a directory named .codeql
in the published pack, but precompiled queries are in files with a .qlx
suffix next to the .ql
source for each query. When analyzing a database with a query from a published pack, CodeQL will load these files instead of the .ql
source. If you need to modify the content of a published pack, be sure to remove all of the .qlx
files, since they may prevent modifications in the .ql
files from taking effect.
About qlpack.yml
files
When executing query-related commands, CodeQL first looks in siblings of the installation directory (and their subdirectories) for qlpack.yml
files.
Then it checks the package cache for CodeQL packs which have been downloaded. This means that when you are developing queries locally, the local packages
in the installation directory override packages of the same name in the package cache, so that you can test your local changes.
The metadata in each qlpack.yml
file tells CodeQL how to compile any queries in the pack, what libraries the pack depends on, and where to
find query suite definitions.
The contents of the CodeQL pack (queries or libraries used in CodeQL analysis) is included in the same directory as qlpack.yml
, or its subdirectories.
The directory containing the qlpack.yml
file serves as the root directory for the content of the CodeQL pack. That is, for all .ql
and .qll
files in the pack, CodeQL will resolve all import statements relative to the directory containing the qlpack.yml
file at the pack’s root.
qlpack.yml
properties
The following properties are supported in qlpack.yml
files.
name
- Required by all packs.
- Defines the scope of the pack, where the CodeQL pack is published, and the name of the pack defined using alphanumeric characters and hyphens. It must be unique as CodeQL cannot differentiate between CodeQL packs with identical names. Use the pack name to specify queries to run using
database analyze
and to define dependencies between CodeQL packs (see examples below). For example:name: octo-org/security-queries
version
- Required by all packs that are published.
- Defines a semantic version for this CodeQL pack that must adhere to the SemVer v2.0.0 specification. For example:
version: 0.0.0
dependencies
- Required by packs that define CodeQL package dependencies on other packs.
- Defines a map from pack references to the semantic version range that is compatible with this pack. Supported for CodeQL CLI versions v2.6.0 and later. For example:
dependencies: codeql/cpp-all: ^0.0.2`
defaultSuiteFile
- Required by packs that export a set of default queries to run.
- Defines the path to a query suite file relative to the package root, containing all of the queries that are run by default when this pack is passed to the
codeql database analyze
command. Supported from CLI version v2.6.0 and onwards. Only one ofdefaultSuiteFile
ordefaultSuite
can be defined. For example:defaultSuiteFile: cpp-code-scanning.qls
defaultSuite
- Required by packs that export a set of default queries to run.
- Defines an inlined query suite containing all of the queries that are run by default when this pack is passed to the
codeql database analyze
command. Supported from CLI version v2.6.0 and onwards. Only one ofdefaultSuiteFile
ordefaultSuite
can be defined. For example:defaultSuite: queries: . exclude: precision: medium
library
- Required by library packs.
- Defines a boolean value that indicates whether or not this pack is a library pack. Library packs do not contain queries and are not compiled. Query packs can ignore this field or explicitly set it to
false
. For example:library: true
suites
- Optional for packs that define query suites.
- Defines the path to a directory in the pack that contains the query suites you want to make known to the CodeQL CLI, defined relative to the pack directory. CodeQL pack users can run “well-known” suites stored in this directory by specifying the pack name, without providing their full path. This is not supported for CodeQL packs downloaded from the Container registry. For more information about query suites, see “Creating CodeQL query suites.” For example:
suites: octo-org-query-suites
tests
- Optional for packs containing CodeQL tests. Ignored for packs without tests.
- Defines the path to a directory within the pack that contains tests, defined relative to the pack directory. Use
.
to specify the whole pack. Any queries in this directory are run as tests whentest run
is run with the--strict-test-discovery
option. These queries are ignored by query suite definitions that usequeries
orqlpack
instructions to ask for all queries in a particular pack. If this property is missing, then.
is assumed. For example:tests: .
extractor
- Required by all packs containing CodeQL tests.
- Defines the CodeQL language extractor to use when running the CodeQL tests in the pack. For more information about testing queries, see “Testing custom queries.” For example:
extractor: javascript
authors
- Optional.
- Defines metadata that will be displayed on the packaging search page in the packages section of the account that the CodeQL pack is published to. For example:
authors: author1@github.com,author2@github.com
license
- Optional.
- Defines metadata that will be displayed on the packaging search page in the packages section of the account that the CodeQL pack is published to. For a list of allowed licenses, see SPDX License List in the SPDX Specification. For example:
license: MIT
description
- Optional.
- Defines metadata that will be displayed on the packaging search page in the packages section of the account that the CodeQL pack is published to. For example:
description: Human-readable description of the contents of the CodeQL pack.
libraryPathDependencies
- Optional, deprecated. Use the
dependencies
property instead. - Previously used to define the names of any CodeQL packs that this CodeQL pack depends on, as an array. This gives the pack access to any libraries, database schema, and query suites defined in the dependency. For example:
libraryPathDependencies: codeql/javascript-all
dbscheme
- Required by core language packs only.
- Defines the path to the database schema for all libraries and queries written for this CodeQL language (see example below). For example:
dbscheme: semmlecode.python.dbscheme
upgrades
- Required by core language packs only.
- Defines the path to a directory within the pack that contains database upgrade scripts, defined relative to the pack directory. Database upgrades are used internally to ensure that a database created with a different version of the CodeQL CLI is compatible with the current version of the CLI. For example:
upgrades: .
About codeql-pack.lock.yml
files
codeql-pack.lock.yml
files store the versions of the resolved transitive dependencies of a CodeQL pack. This file is created by the codeql pack install
command if it does not already exist and should be added to your version control system. The dependencies
section of the qlpack.yml
file contains version ranges that are compatible with the pack. The codeql-pack.lock.yml
file locks the versions to precise dependencies. This ensures that running codeql pack install
on this the pack will always retrieve the same versions of dependencies even if newer compatible versions exist.
For example, if a qlpack.yml
file contains the following dependencies:
dependencies:
codeql/cpp-all: ^0.1.2
my-user/my-lib: ^0.2.3
other-dependency/from-source: "*"
The codeql-pack.lock.yml
file will contain something like the following:
dependencies:
codeql/cpp-all:
version: 0.1.4
my-user/my-lib:
version: 0.2.4
my-user/transitive-dependency:
version: 1.2.4
The codeql/cpp-all
dependency is locked to version 0.1.4. The my-user/my-lib
dependency is locked to version 0.2.4. The my-user/transitive-dependency
, which is a transitive dependency and is not specified in the qlpack.yml
file, is locked to version 1.2.4. The other-dependency/from-source
is absent from the lock file since it is resolved from source. This dependency must be available in the same CodeQL workspace as the pack. For more information about CodeQL workspaces and resolving dependencies from source, see “About CodeQL Workspaces.”
In most cases, the codeql-pack.lock.yml
file is only relevant for query packs since library packs are non-executable and usually do not need their transitive dependencies to be fixed. The exception to this is for library packs that contain tests. In this case, the codeql-pack.lock.yml
file is used to ensure that the tests are always run with the same versions of dependencies to avoid spurious failures when there are mismatched dependencies.
Examples of custom CodeQL packs
When you write custom queries or tests, you should save them in custom CodeQL packs. For simplicity, try to organize each pack logically. For more information, see “CodeQL pack structure.” Save files for queries and tests in separate packs and, where possible, organize custom packs into specific folders for each target language. This is particuarly useful if you intend to publish your CodeQL packs so they can be shared with others or used in code scanning. For more information, see "About code scanning with CodeQL."
CodeQL packs for custom libraries
A custom CodeQL pack containing custom C++ libraries, with no queries or tests, may have a qlpack.yml
file containing:
name: my-github-user/my-custom-libraries
version: 1.2.3
library: true
dependencies:
codeql/cpp-all: ^0.1.2
where codeql/cpp-all
is the name of the CodeQL pack for C/C++ analysis included in the CodeQL repository. The version range ^0.1.2
indicates that this pack is compatible with all versions of codeql/cpp-all
that are greater than or equal to 0.1.2
and less than 0.2.0
. Any CodeQL library file (a file with a .qll
extension) defined in this pack will be available to queries defined in any query pack that includes this pack in its dependencies block.
The library
property indicates that this pack is a library pack and does not contain any queries.
CodeQL packs for custom queries
A custom CodeQL pack containing custom C++ queries and libraries may have a qlpack.yml
file containing:
name: my-github-user/my-custom-queries
version: 1.2.3
dependencies:
codeql/cpp-all: ^0.1.2
my-github-user/my-custom-libraries: ^1.2.3
suites: my-custom-suites
where codeql/cpp-all
is the name of the CodeQL pack for C/C++ analysis included in the CodeQL repository. The version range ^0.1.2
indicates that this pack is compatible with all versions of codeql/cpp-all
that are greater than or equal to 0.1.2
and less than 0.2.0
. my-github-user/my-custom-libraries
is the name of a CodeQL pack containing custom CodeQL libraries for C++. Any CodeQL library file (a file with a .qll
extension) defined in this pack will be available to queries in the my-github-user/my-custom-queries
pack.
The suites
property indicates a directory where “well-known” query suites can be found. These suites can be used on the command line by referring to their name only, rather than their full path. For more information about query suites, see “Creating CodeQL query suites.”
CodeQL packs for custom tests
For custom CodeQL packs containing test files, you also need to include an
extractor
property so that the test run
command knows how to create test
databases. You may also wish to specify the tests
property.
The following qlpack.yml
file states that my-github-user/my-query-tests
depends on my-github-user/my-custom-queries
at a version greater than or equal to 1.2.3 and less than 2.0.0. It also declares that the CLI should use the Java extractor
when creating test databases. The tests: .
line declares that all .ql
files in the pack should be run as tests when codeql test run
is run with the --strict-test-discovery
option. Typically, test packs do not contain a version
property. This prevents you from accidentally publishing them.
name: my-github-user/my-query-tests
dependencies:
my-github-user/my-custom-queries: ^1.2.3
extractor: java
tests: .
For more information about running tests, see “Testing custom queries.”
Examples of CodeQL packs in the CodeQL repository
Each of the languages in the CodeQL repository has four main CodeQL packs:
-
Core library pack for the language, with the database schema used by the language, and CodeQL libraries, and queries at
<language>/ql/lib
-
Core query pack for the language that includes the default queries for the language, along with their query suites at
<language>/ql/src
-
Tests for the core language libraries and queries at
<language>/ql/test
-
Example queries for the language at
<language>/ql/examples
Core library pack
Here is an example qlpack.yml
file for the C/C++ analysis libraries
core language pack:
name: codeql/cpp-all
version: x.y.z-dev
dbscheme: semmlecode.cpp.dbscheme
library: true
upgrades: upgrades
Some extra notes on the following properties:
-
library
: Indicates that this is a library pack with no executable queries. It is only meant to be used as a dependency for other packs. -
dbscheme
andupgrades
: These properties are internal to the CodeQL CLI and should only be defined in the core QL pack for a language.
Core query pack
Here is an example qlpack.yml
file for C/C++ analysis queries
core query pack:
name: codeql/cpp-queries
version: x.y.z-dev
dependencies:
codeql/cpp-all: "*"
codeql/suite-helpers: "*"
suites: codeql-suites
defaultSuiteFile: codeql-suites/cpp-code-scanning.qls
Some extra notes on the following properties:
-
dependencies
: This query pack depends oncodeql/cpp-all
andcodeql/suite-helpers
. Since these dependencies are resolved from source, it does not matter what version of the CodeQL pack they are compatible with. For more information about resolving dependencies from source, see “Source Dependencies.” -
suites
: Indicates the directory containing “well-known” query suites. -
defaultSuiteFile
: The name of the default query suite file that is used when no query suite is specified.
Tests for the core CodeQL pack
Here is an example qlpack.yml
file for C/C++ analysis tests
core test pack:
name: codeql/cpp-tests
dependencies:
codeql/cpp-all: "*"
codeql/cpp-queries: "*"
extractor: cpp
tests: .
Some extra notes on the following properties:
-
dependencies
: This pack depends on the core CodeQL query and library packs for C++. -
extractor
: This specifies that all the tests will use the same C++ extractor to create the database for the tests. -
tests
: This specifies the location of the tests. In this case, the tests are in the root folder (and all sub-folders) of the pack. -
version
: There is noversion
property for the tests pack. This prevents test packs from accidentally being published.