Connected Mode

Connecting SonarLint to SonarQube or SonarCloud is the first step in setting up the Sonar Solution, to take advantage of having consistent issues reported on both sides. Setting up Connected Mode will permit the transmission of information SonarLint needs, such as URLs and user credentials or file exclusions and marked issues, to communicate with SonarQube or SonarCloud. When binding your local workspace folder to your SonarQube or SonarCloud project(s), SonarLint will try to match, as much as possible, the same rules and settings as found on the server.

While in Connected Mode, SonarLint receives notifications from SonarQube/SonarCloud about your Quality Gate changes and new issues. Smart notifications can be enabled or disabled from the UI while creating or editing the connection settings. 

Benefits

• Analyze more languages and detect more issues by combining Sonarlint’s supported rules with those supported by SonarQube and SonarCloud.
• Highlight advanced issues (in the IDE) like injection vulnerabilities, detected by SonarQube and SonarCloud. 
• An issue discovered in SonarQube or SonarCloud can be quickly opened in the IDE via a dedicated button.
• Use the same quality profile locally as is defined on the SonarQube or SonarCloud server.  
• Apply settings, such as rule selection and file exclusion defined on the SonarQube or SonarCloud server to your local analysis. 
• Define specific analyzer parameters in SonarQube or on SonarCloud, and have those parameters applied locally.
• Automatically suppress issues that are marked as Accepted or False Positive in SonarQube or on SonarCloud so that locally reported issues match those found on the server.

• Use the SonarLint focus on new code feature to concentrate detection of issues only in new code, as you defined in SonarQube or on SonarCloud.
• Changes in your SonarQube or SonarCloud quality gate will arrive in your IDE when you accept Smart notifications.

Free and open-source versions of SonarQube and SonarCloud are available to work in Connected Mode. In SonarCloud, it’s always free to analyze your publicly accessible projects; paid plans are required only if linking to a private repository.

Prerequisites and supported languages

Having a SonarQube project (in an Active version) or a SonarCloud project is required to run SonarLint for IntelliJ in Connected Mode. In addition to the published languages on the Rules and languages page, you can unlock Scala, Swift, and PL/SQL rules when using Connected Mode.

Branch awareness

Branch awareness allows SonarLint to consider the branch currently checked out in the IDE and synchronize it with the most appropriate branch from the server; we call this branch matching.

In Connected Mode, SonarLint synchronizes some data from the issues that were found on the server, such as the issue's status and resolution. It is important that SonarLint knows on which branch the user is at that moment in order to sync the local analysis with the correct branch analyzed by the server.

SonarLint for IntelliJ only supports git and the git branch name with regard to branch matching, using the git4idea client shipped by JetBrains. If SonarLint’s branch awareness algorithm fails to detect a best match, injection vulnerabilities and issue suppressions will be pulled from the main branch by default.

Checking which branches are analyzed on the server

In SonarQube, open the highlighted drop-down list shown below (as it looks in SonarQube) for a list of analyzed branches and pull requests.

To analyze branches other than master|main , please check the SonarQube or SonarCloud documentation about branch analysis.

How SonarLint selects which branch to sync

SonarLint deploys these three methods to choose which branch (in SonarQube or on SonarCloud) to sync with the local analysis.

Exact match

Branches with the same name are considered the same branch. If the branch that is currently checked out locally is analyzed on the server, SonarLint will pick this branch for synchronization. 

Closest branch

SonarLint will consider all local branches that also exist on the server. For each branch, SonarLint will compute the distance between the current HEAD and the branch by the count of commits. The closest branch will be kept. In case the number of commits is the same for two or more branches and the main branch is among them, it will be preferred; else the tie will be broken with a random choice (from the list of equidistance branches).

Default to main branch

All other cases will default to the branch marked as "main" on the server. For example, if there is an error in reading the branch, or if there is no Git repo, SonarLint will default to the main branch.

Long and short-lived branches

When using Connected Mode with SonarCloud, issues on short-lived branches are not synchronized. When an issue is marked in SonarCloud accepted or false positive on a short-lived branch, SonarLint will still show that issue in the IDE.

SonarQube does not distinguish between long- and short-lived branches therefore, all issue resolutions are recognized.

Connection setup

SonarLint for IntelliJ provides a connection wizard to help you set up Connected Mode with SonarQube or SonarCloud. Please see the Connected Mode setup page for detailed instructions to set up Connected Mode and bind your project.

Sharing your setup

From version 10.5, you can share a setup configuration file with your team, simplifying the process. 

One team member must step through the first-time setup process, then export and commit the binding configuration to the repository. Any team member running SonarLint will find the binding details inside of the project’s source folder and automatically receive a notification to bind the project.

Please see the Connected Mode setup page for detailed instructions.

Troubleshooting Connected Mode

See the Troubleshooting page for details to look at when your SonarLint analysis does not match what you see in SonarQube or SonarCloud.

SonarLint-SonarQube version support policy

SonarLint enables users to establish a connection to the latest SonarQube version and to the latest LTA (Long-Term Active) version. When a new LTA version is released (approximately every 18 to 24 months), we still enable connecting SonarLint to the previous LTA version for a certain period of time (currently 12 months after the latest LTA release) to allow enough time for organizations to upgrade their SonarQube version. 

For more information about long-term support of SonarQube, check out our page describing "what an LTA is" and, to review IDE-specific requirements, please check the respective pages of the documentation as listed in the next paragraph.

⚠️ The 8.9LTA reached its support expiration date (in November ’23).

Notifications

Connected Mode allows SonarQube to send smart alerts to individuals or teams as soon as something appears on the server that something failed, when new issues are discovered or when the Sonar Quality Profile is updated, for example. With everyone in the loop, issues can be addressed promptly, improving the overall software quality and delivery. The notification will include a link to call back to SonarQube or SonarCloud where you can learn more about the issues that were introduced. 

You'll receive smart notifications in your IDE when:

• the quality gate status of a project open in your IDE changes (see the SonarQube or SonarCloud documentation for details about using quality gates in your project)
• a SonarQube or SonarCloud analysis raises new issues that you've introduced in a project open in your IDE

You can activate or deactivate smart notifications in SonarLint on the IDE side on a server-by-server basis.

Sonar Smart Notifications are available in all editions of SonarQube and SonarCloud.