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Enterprise Server 3.0
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REST API
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This version of GitHub Enterprise was discontinued on 2022-02-16. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Code scanning

In this article

The Code Scanning API enables you to retrieve and update the code scanning alerts and analyses from a repository.

Code scanning is available if you have a license for GitHub Advanced Security. For more information, see "About GitHub Advanced Security."

The code scanning API lets you retrieve and update code scanning alerts from a repository. You can use the endpoints to create automated reports for the code scanning alerts in an organization or upload analysis results generated using offline code scanning tools. For more information, see "Finding security vulnerabilities and errors in your code."

List code scanning alerts for a repository

Lists all open code scanning alerts for the default branch (usually main or master). You must use an access token with the security_events scope to use this endpoint. GitHub Apps must have the security_events read permission to use this endpoint.

The response includes a most_recent_instance object. This provides details of the most recent instance of this alert for the default branch or for the specified Git reference (if you used ref in the request).

get /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/alerts

Parameters

Name Type In Description
accept string header

Setting to application/vnd.github.v3+json is recommended.
owner string path
repo string path
tool_name string query

The name of a code scanning tool. Only results by this tool will be listed. You can specify the tool by using either tool_name or tool_guid, but not both.
tool_guid string query

The GUID of a code scanning tool. Only results by this tool will be listed. Note that some code scanning tools may not include a GUID in their analysis data. You can specify the tool by using either tool_guid or tool_name, but not both.
page integer query

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1
per_page integer query

Results per page (max 100)

Default: 30
ref string query

The Git reference for the results you want to list. The ref for a branch can be formatted either as refs/heads/<branch name> or simply <branch name>. To reference a pull request use refs/pull/<number>/merge.
state string query

Set to open, fixed, or dismissed to list code scanning alerts in a specific state.

Code samples

Shell
curl \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  http(s)://{hostname}/api/v3/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/alerts
JavaScript (@octokit/core.js)
await octokit.request('GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/alerts', {
  owner: 'octocat',
  repo: 'hello-world'
})

Response

Status: 200 OK
[
  {
    "number": 4,
    "created_at": "2020-02-13T12:29:18Z",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/alerts/4",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/4",
    "state": "open",
    "dismissed_by": null,
    "dismissed_at": null,
    "dismissed_reason": null,
    "rule": {
      "id": "js/zipslip",
      "severity": "error",
      "description": "Arbitrary file write during zip extraction",
      "name": "js/zipslip"
    },
    "tool": {
      "name": "CodeQL",
      "guid": null,
      "version": "2.4.0"
    },
    "most_recent_instance": {
      "ref": "refs/heads/main",
      "analysis_key": ".github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml:CodeQL-Build",
      "environment": "{}",
      "state": "open",
      "commit_sha": "39406e42cb832f683daa691dd652a8dc36ee8930",
      "message": {
        "text": "This path depends on a user-provided value."
      },
      "location": {
        "path": "spec-main/api-session-spec.ts",
        "start_line": 917,
        "end_line": 917,
        "start_column": 7,
        "end_column": 18
      },
      "classifications": [
        "test"
      ]
    },
    "instances_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/alerts/4/instances"
  },
  {
    "number": 3,
    "created_at": "2020-02-13T12:29:18Z",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/alerts/3",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/3",
    "state": "dismissed",
    "dismissed_by": {
      "login": "octocat",
      "id": 1,
      "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=",
      "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
      "gravatar_id": "",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
      "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers",
      "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
      "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
      "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
      "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions",
      "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs",
      "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos",
      "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
      "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/received_events",
      "type": "User",
      "site_admin": false
    },
    "dismissed_at": "2020-02-14T12:29:18Z",
    "dismissed_reason": "false positive",
    "rule": {
      "id": "js/zipslip",
      "severity": "error",
      "description": "Arbitrary file write during zip extraction",
      "name": "js/zipslip"
    },
    "tool": {
      "name": "CodeQL",
      "guid": null,
      "version": "2.4.0"
    },
    "most_recent_instance": {
      "ref": "refs/heads/main",
      "analysis_key": ".github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml:CodeQL-Build",
      "environment": "{}",
      "state": "open",
      "commit_sha": "39406e42cb832f683daa691dd652a8dc36ee8930",
      "message": {
        "text": "This path depends on a user-provided value."
      },
      "location": {
        "path": "lib/ab12-gen.js",
        "start_line": 917,
        "end_line": 917,
        "start_column": 7,
        "end_column": 18
      },
      "classifications": []
    },
    "instances_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/alerts/3/instances"
  }
]

Response if GitHub Advanced Security is not enabled for this repository

Status: 403 Forbidden

Resource not found

Status: 404 Not Found

Service unavailable

Status: 503 Service Unavailable

Notes

Get a code scanning alert

Gets a single code scanning alert. You must use an access token with the security_events scope to use this endpoint. GitHub Apps must have the security_events read permission to use this endpoint.

Deprecation notice: The instances field is deprecated and will, in future, not be included in the response for this endpoint. The example response reflects this change. The same information can now be retrieved via a GET request to the URL specified by instances_url.

get /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/alerts/{alert_number}

Parameters

Name Type In Description
accept string header

Setting to application/vnd.github.v3+json is recommended.
owner string path
repo string path
alert_number integer path

The number that identifies an alert. You can find this at the end of the URL for a code scanning alert within GitHub, and in the number field in the response from the GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/alerts operation.

Code samples

Shell
curl \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  http(s)://{hostname}/api/v3/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/alerts/42
JavaScript (@octokit/core.js)
await octokit.request('GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/alerts/{alert_number}', {
  owner: 'octocat',
  repo: 'hello-world',
  alert_number: 42
})

Response

Status: 200 OK
{
  "number": 42,
  "created_at": "2020-06-19T11:21:34Z",
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/alerts/42",
  "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/42",
  "state": "dismissed",
  "dismissed_by": {
    "login": "octocat",
    "id": 54933897,
    "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=",
    "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
    "gravatar_id": "",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
    "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers",
    "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
    "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
    "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
    "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions",
    "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs",
    "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos",
    "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
    "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/received_events",
    "type": "User",
    "site_admin": false
  },
  "dismissed_at": "2020-02-14T12:29:18Z",
  "dismissed_reason": "false positive",
  "rule": {
    "id": "js/zipslip",
    "severity": "error",
    "description": "Arbitrary file write during zip extraction (\"Zip Slip\")",
    "name": "js/zipslip",
    "full_description": "Extracting files from a malicious zip archive without validating that the destination file path is within the destination directory can cause files outside the destination directory to be overwritten.",
    "tags": [
      "security",
      "external/cwe/cwe-022"
    ],
    "help": "# Arbitrary file write during zip extraction (\"Zip Slip\")\\nExtracting files from a malicious zip archive without validating that the destination file path is within the destination directory can cause files outside the destination directory to be overwritten ..."
  },
  "tool": {
    "name": "CodeQL",
    "guid": null,
    "version": "2.4.0"
  },
  "most_recent_instance": {
    "ref": "refs/heads/main",
    "analysis_key": ".github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml:CodeQL-Build",
    "environment": "{}",
    "state": "dismissed",
    "commit_sha": "39406e42cb832f683daa691dd652a8dc36ee8930",
    "message": {
      "text": "This path depends on a user-provided value."
    },
    "location": {
      "path": "spec-main/api-session-spec.ts",
      "start_line": 917,
      "end_line": 917,
      "start_column": 7,
      "end_column": 18
    },
    "classifications": [
      "test"
    ]
  },
  "instances_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/alerts/42/instances"
}

Response if GitHub Advanced Security is not enabled for this repository

Status: 403 Forbidden

Resource not found

Status: 404 Not Found

Service unavailable

Status: 503 Service Unavailable

Notes

Update a code scanning alert

Updates the status of a single code scanning alert. You must use an access token with the security_events scope to use this endpoint. GitHub Apps must have the security_events write permission to use this endpoint.

patch /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/alerts/{alert_number}

Parameters

Name Type In Description
accept string header

Setting to application/vnd.github.v3+json is recommended.
owner string path
repo string path
alert_number integer path

The number that identifies an alert. You can find this at the end of the URL for a code scanning alert within GitHub, and in the number field in the response from the GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/alerts operation.
state string body

Required. Sets the state of the code scanning alert. Can be one of open or dismissed. You must provide dismissed_reason when you set the state to dismissed.
dismissed_reason string or nullable body

Required when the state is dismissed. The reason for dismissing or closing the alert. Can be one of: false positive, won't fix, and used in tests.

Code samples

Shell
curl \
  -X PATCH \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  http(s)://{hostname}/api/v3/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/alerts/42 \
  -d '{"state":"state"}'
JavaScript (@octokit/core.js)
await octokit.request('PATCH /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/alerts/{alert_number}', {
  owner: 'octocat',
  repo: 'hello-world',
  alert_number: 42,
  state: 'state'
})

Response

Status: 200 OK
{
  "number": 42,
  "created_at": "2020-08-25T21:28:36Z",
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/alerts/42",
  "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/42",
  "state": "dismissed",
  "dismissed_by": {
    "login": "octocat",
    "id": 1,
    "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE=",
    "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
    "gravatar_id": "",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
    "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers",
    "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
    "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/gists{/gist_id}",
    "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
    "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/subscriptions",
    "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/orgs",
    "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos",
    "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/events{/privacy}",
    "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/received_events",
    "type": "User",
    "site_admin": false
  },
  "dismissed_at": "2020-09-02T22:34:56Z",
  "dismissed_reason": "false positive",
  "rule": {
    "id": "js/zipslip",
    "severity": "error",
    "description": "Arbitrary file write during zip extraction (\"Zip Slip\")",
    "name": "js/zipslip",
    "full_description": "Extracting files from a malicious zip archive without validating that the destination file path is within the destination directory can cause files outside the destination directory to be overwritten.",
    "tags": [
      "security",
      "external/cwe/cwe-022"
    ],
    "help": "# Arbitrary file write during zip extraction (\"Zip Slip\")\\nExtracting files from a malicious zip archive without validating that the destination file path is within the destination directory can cause files outside the destination directory to be overwritten ..."
  },
  "tool": {
    "name": "CodeQL",
    "guid": null,
    "version": "2.4.0"
  },
  "most_recent_instance": {
    "ref": "refs/heads/main",
    "analysis_key": ".github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml:CodeQL-Build",
    "environment": "{}",
    "state": "dismissed",
    "commit_sha": "39406e42cb832f683daa691dd652a8dc36ee8930",
    "message": {
      "text": "This path depends on a user-provided value."
    },
    "location": {
      "path": "spec-main/api-session-spec.ts",
      "start_line": 917,
      "end_line": 917,
      "start_column": 7,
      "end_column": 18
    },
    "classifications": [
      "test"
    ]
  },
  "instances_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/alerts/42/instances"
}

Response if the repository is archived or if github advanced security is not enabled for this repository

Status: 403 Forbidden

Resource not found

Status: 404 Not Found

Service unavailable

Status: 503 Service Unavailable

Notes

List code scanning analyses for a repository

Lists the details of all code scanning analyses for a repository, starting with the most recent. The response is paginated and you can use the page and per_page parameters to list the analyses you're interested in. By default 30 analyses are listed per page.

The rules_count field in the response give the number of rules that were run in the analysis. For very old analyses this data is not available, and 0 is returned in this field.

You must use an access token with the security_events scope to use this endpoint. GitHub Apps must have the security_events read permission to use this endpoint.

Deprecation notice: The tool_name field is deprecated and will, in future, not be included in the response for this endpoint. The example response reflects this change. The tool name can now be found inside the tool field.

get /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/analyses

Parameters

Name Type In Description
accept string header

Setting to application/vnd.github.v3+json is recommended.
owner string path
repo string path
tool_name string query

The name of a code scanning tool. Only results by this tool will be listed. You can specify the tool by using either tool_name or tool_guid, but not both.
tool_guid string query

The GUID of a code scanning tool. Only results by this tool will be listed. Note that some code scanning tools may not include a GUID in their analysis data. You can specify the tool by using either tool_guid or tool_name, but not both.
page integer query

Page number of the results to fetch.

Default: 1
per_page integer query

Results per page (max 100)

Default: 30
ref string query

The Git reference for the analyses you want to list. The ref for a branch can be formatted either as refs/heads/<branch name> or simply <branch name>. To reference a pull request use refs/pull/<number>/merge.
sarif_id string query

Filter analyses belonging to the same SARIF upload.

Code samples

Shell
curl \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  http(s)://{hostname}/api/v3/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/analyses
JavaScript (@octokit/core.js)
await octokit.request('GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/analyses', {
  owner: 'octocat',
  repo: 'hello-world'
})

Response

Status: 200 OK
[
  {
    "ref": "refs/heads/main",
    "commit_sha": "d99612c3e1f2970085cfbaeadf8f010ef69bad83",
    "analysis_key": ".github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml:analyze",
    "environment": "{\"language\":\"python\"}",
    "error": "",
    "category": ".github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml:analyze/language:python",
    "created_at": "2020-08-27T15:05:21Z",
    "results_count": 17,
    "rules_count": 49,
    "id": 201,
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/analyses/201",
    "sarif_id": "6c81cd8e-b078-4ac3-a3be-1dad7dbd0b53",
    "tool": {
      "name": "CodeQL",
      "guid": null,
      "version": "2.4.0"
    },
    "deletable": true,
    "warning": ""
  },
  {
    "ref": "refs/heads/my-branch",
    "commit_sha": "c8cff6510d4d084fb1b4aa13b64b97ca12b07321",
    "analysis_key": ".github/workflows/shiftleft.yml:build",
    "environment": "{}",
    "error": "",
    "category": ".github/workflows/shiftleft.yml:build/",
    "created_at": "2020-08-31T22:46:44Z",
    "results_count": 17,
    "rules_count": 32,
    "id": 200,
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/analyses/200",
    "sarif_id": "8981cd8e-b078-4ac3-a3be-1dad7dbd0b582",
    "tool": {
      "name": "Python Security Analysis",
      "guid": null,
      "version": "1.2.0"
    },
    "deletable": true,
    "warning": ""
  }
]

Response if GitHub Advanced Security is not enabled for this repository

Status: 403 Forbidden

Resource not found

Status: 404 Not Found

Service unavailable

Status: 503 Service Unavailable

Notes

Upload an analysis as SARIF data

Uploads SARIF data containing the results of a code scanning analysis to make the results available in a repository. You must use an access token with the security_events scope to use this endpoint. GitHub Apps must have the security_events write permission to use this endpoint.

There are two places where you can upload code scanning results.

You must compress the SARIF-formatted analysis data that you want to upload, using gzip, and then encode it as a Base64 format string. For example:

gzip -c analysis-data.sarif | base64 -w0

SARIF upload supports a maximum of 1000 results per analysis run. Any results over this limit are ignored. Typically, but not necessarily, a SARIF file contains a single run of a single tool. If a code scanning tool generates too many results, you should update the analysis configuration to run only the most important rules or queries.

The 202 Accepted, response includes an id value. You can use this ID to check the status of the upload by using this for the /sarifs/{sarif_id} endpoint. For more information, see "Get information about a SARIF upload."

post /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/sarifs

Parameters

Name Type In Description
accept string header

Setting to application/vnd.github.v3+json is recommended.
owner string path
repo string path
commit_sha string body

Required. The SHA of the commit to which the analysis you are uploading relates.
ref string body

Required. The full Git reference, formatted as refs/heads/<branch name>,refs/pull/<number>/merge, or refs/pull/<number>/head.
sarif string body

Required. A Base64 string representing the SARIF file to upload. You must first compress your SARIF file using gzip and then translate the contents of the file into a Base64 encoding string. For more information, see "SARIF support for code scanning."
checkout_uri string body

The base directory used in the analysis, as it appears in the SARIF file. This property is used to convert file paths from absolute to relative, so that alerts can be mapped to their correct location in the repository.
started_at string body

The time that the analysis run began. This is a timestamp in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ.
tool_name string body

The name of the tool used to generate the code scanning analysis. If this parameter is not used, the tool name defaults to "API". If the uploaded SARIF contains a tool GUID, this will be available for filtering using the tool_guid parameter of operations such as GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/alerts.

Code samples

Shell
curl \
  -X POST \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
  http(s)://{hostname}/api/v3/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/sarifs \
  -d '{"commit_sha":"commit_sha","ref":"ref","sarif":"sarif"}'
JavaScript (@octokit/core.js)
await octokit.request('POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/code-scanning/sarifs', {
  owner: 'octocat',
  repo: 'hello-world',
  commit_sha: 'commit_sha',
  ref: 'ref',
  sarif: 'sarif'
})

Default response

Status: 202 Accepted
{
  "id": "47177e22-5596-11eb-80a1-c1e54ef945c6",
  "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/hello-world/code-scanning/sarifs/47177e22-5596-11eb-80a1-c1e54ef945c6"
}

Bad Request if the sarif field is invalid

Status: 400 Bad Request

Response if the repository is archived or if github advanced security is not enabled for this repository

Status: 403 Forbidden

Resource not found

Status: 404 Not Found

Payload Too Large if the sarif field is too large

Status: 413 Payload Too Large

Service unavailable

Status: 503 Service Unavailable

Notes