Creating and working with CodeQL packs

About CodeQL packs and the CodeQL CLI

CodeQL packs are used to create, share, depend on, and run CodeQL queries and libraries. CodeQL packs contain queries, library files, query suites, and metadata. With CodeQL packs and the package management commands in the CodeQL CLI, you can publish your custom queries and integrate them into your codebase analysis.

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 a compilation cache. 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 and there is no compilation cache included when the pack is published.

You can use the pack command in the CodeQL CLI to create CodeQL packs, add dependencies to packs, and install or update dependencies. You can also publish and download CodeQL packs using the pack command. 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. The core query packs, which are included in the CodeQL CLI bundle, but you can otherwise download, are:

• codeql/cpp-queries
• codeql/csharp-queries
• codeql/go-queries
• codeql/java-queries
• codeql/javascript-queries
• codeql/python-queries
• codeql/ruby-queries

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.

Creating a CodeQL pack

You can create a CodeQL pack by running the following command from the checkout root of your project:

codeql pack init <scope>/<pack>

You must specify:

• <scope>: the name of the GitHub organization or user account that you will publish to.

• <pack>: the name for the pack that you are creating.

The codeql pack init command creates the directory structure and configuration files for a CodeQL pack. By default, the command creates a query pack. If you want to create a library pack, you must edit the qlpack.yml file to explicitly declare the file as a library pack by including the library:true property.

Modifying an existing legacy QL pack to create a CodeQL query pack

If you already have a qlpack.yml file, you can edit it manually to convert it into a CodeQL pack.

1. Edit the name property so that it matches the format <scope>/<name>, where <scope> is the name of the GitHub organization or user account that you will publish to.

2. In the qlpack.yml file, include a version property with a semver identifier, as well as an optional dependencies block.

3. Migrate the list of dependencies in libraryPathDependencies to the dependencies block. Specify the version range for each dependency. If the range is unimportant, or you are unsure of compatibility, you can specify "\*", which indicates that any version is acceptable and will default to the latest version when you run codeql pack install.

For more information about the properties, see "Customizing analysis with CodeQL packs."

Adding and installing dependencies on a CodeQL pack

You can add dependencies on CodeQL packs using the command codeql pack add. You must specify the scope, name, and (optionally) a compatible version range.

codeql pack add <scope>/<name>@x.x.x <scope>/<other-name>

If you don’t specify a version range, the latest version will be added. Otherwise, the latest version that satisfies the requested range will be added.

This command updates the qlpack.yml file with the requested dependencies and downloads them into the package cache. Please note that this command will reformat the file and remove all comments.

You can also manually edit the qlpack.yml file to include dependencies and install the dependencies with the command:

codeql pack install

This command downloads all dependencies to the shared cache on the local disk.