Publishing and using CodeQL packs

Working with CodeQL packs on GitHub Enterprise Server

By default, the CodeQL CLI expects to download CodeQL packs from and publish packs to the Container registry on GitHub.com. However, you can also work with CodeQL packs in a Container registry on GitHub Enterprise Server by creating a qlconfig.yml file to tell the CLI which Container registry to use for each pack.

Create a ~/.codeql/qlconfig.yml file on Linux/MacOS or %HOMEPATH%\.codeql\qlconfig.yml on Windows using your preferred text editor, and add entries to specify which registry to use for one or more package name patterns. For example, the following qlconfig.yml file associates all packs with the Container registry at http://GHE_HOSTNAME, except packs matching codeql/\* or the other-org/* organization, which are associated with the Container registry on GitHub.com:

registries:
- packages:
  - 'codeql/*'
  - 'other-org/*'
  # Container registry on GitHub.com
  url: http://ghcr.io/v2/
- packages: '*'
  # Container registry hosted at `http://GHE_HOSTNAME`
  url: http://containers.GHE_HOSTNAME/v2/

The CodeQL CLI will determine which registry to use for a given package name by finding the first item in the registries list with a packages property that matches that package name. This means that you’ll generally want to define the most specific package name patterns first. The packages property may be a single package name, a glob pattern, or a YAML list of package names and glob patterns.

The registries list can also be placed inside a codeql-workspace.yml file. Doing so will allow you to define the registries to be used within a specific workspace, so that it can be shared amongst other CodeQL users of the workspace. The registries list in codeql-workspace.yml will be merged with and take precedence over the list in the global qlconfig.yml. For more information about codeql-workspace.yml, see Sobre os workspaces do CodeQL.

You can now use codeql pack publish, codeql pack download, and codeql database analyze to manage packs on GitHub Enterprise Server.

Authenticating to GitHub Container registries

You can publish packs and download private packs by authenticating to the appropriate GitHub Container registry.

Authenticating to Container registries on GitHub.com

You can authenticate to the Container registry in two ways:

1. Pass the --github-auth-stdin option to the CodeQL CLI, then supply a GitHub Apps token or personal access token via standard input.
2. Set the GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable to a GitHub Apps token or personal access token.

Authenticating to Container registries on GitHub Enterprise Server

Similarly, you can authenticate to a Container registry on GitHub Enterprise Server, or authenticate to multiple registries simultaneously (for example, to download or run private packs from multiple registries) in two ways:

1. Pass the --registries-auth-stdin option to the CodeQL CLI, then supply a registry authentication string via standard input.
2. Set the CODEQL_REGISTRIES_AUTH environment variable to a registry authentication string.

A registry authentication string is a comma-separated list of <registry-url>=<token> pairs, where registry-url is a Container registry URL, such as http://containers.GHE_HOSTNAME/v2/, and token is a GitHub Apps token or personal access token for that Container registry. This ensures that each token is only passed to the Container registry you specify.

For example, the following registry authentication string specifies that the CodeQL CLI should authenticate as follows:

• Use the token <token1> to authenticate to Container registry on GitHub.com.
• Use the token <token2> to authenticate to the Container registry for the enterprise at http://containers.GHE_HOSTNAME/v2/.

http://ghcr.io/v2/=<token1>,http://containers.GHE_HOSTNAME/v2/=<token2>

Publishing your CodeQL pack

To share your CodeQL pack with other people, you can publish it to the Container registry.

Configuring the qlpack.yml file before publishing

You can check and modify the configuration details of your CodeQL pack prior to publishing. Open the qlpack.yml file in your preferred text editor.

library: # set to true if the pack is a library. Set to false or omit for a query pack
name: <scope>/<pack>
version: <x.x.x>
description: <Description to publish with the package>
defaultSuite: # optional, one or more queries in the pack to run by default
    - query: <relative-path>/query-file>.ql
defaultSuiteFile: default-queries.qls # optional, a pointer to a query-suite in this pack
license: # optional, the license under which the pack is published
dependencies: # map from CodeQL pack name to version range

• name: must follow the <scope>/<pack> format, where <scope> is the GitHub organization that you will publish to and <pack> is the name for the pack.

• A maximum of one of defaultSuite or defaultSuiteFile is allowed. These are two different ways to define a default query suite to be run, the first by specifying queries directly in the qlpack.yml file and the second by specifying a query suite in the pack.

Running codeql pack publish

When you are ready to publish a pack to the GitHub Container registry, you can run the following command in the root of the pack directory:

codeql pack publish

The published package will be displayed in the packages section of GitHub organization specified by the scope in the qlpack.yml file.

Downloading an existing CodeQL pack

To run a pack that someone else has created, you must first download it by running the following command:

codeql pack download <scope>/<pack>@x.x.x

• <scope>: the name of the GitHub organization that you will download from.
• <pack>: the name for the pack that you want to download.
• @x.x.x: an optional version number. If omitted, the latest version will be downloaded.

This command accepts arguments for multiple packs.

If you write scripts that specify a particular version number of a query pack to download, keep in mind that when you update your version of CodeQL to a newer one, you may also need to switch to a newer version of the query pack. Newer versions of CodeQL may provide degraded performance when used with query packs that have been pinned to a very old version. For more information, see About CodeQL pack compatibility.

Using a CodeQL pack to analyze a CodeQL database

To analyze a CodeQL database with a CodeQL pack, run the following command:

codeql database analyze <database> <scope>/<pack>@x.x.x:<path>

• <database>: the CodeQL database to be analyzed.
• <scope>: the name of the GitHub organization that the pack is published to.
• <pack>: the name for the pack that you are using.
• @x.x.x: an optional version number. If omitted, the latest version will be used.
• :<path>: an optional path to a query, directory, or query suite. If omitted, the pack’s default query suite will be used.

The analyze command will run the default suite of any specified CodeQL packs. You can specify multiple CodeQL packs to be used for analyzing a CodeQL database. For example:

codeql <database> analyze <scope>/<pack> <scope>/<other-pack>