Using the scanner

To start the SonarScanner for NPM, you can either add the analysis to your build files, or use the scanner start command line (with or without npx).

You can start the SonarScanner for NPM and thus, integrate it into your CI or build pipeline, in the following ways:

• From the command line: A global mode installation of the scanner is required.

• From the command line with npx: No scanner installation is required.

• By adding the analysis step to your build files: The scanner must be added to the project’s devDependencies.

You can pass analysis parameters in the command line and in the analysis step coded in JS. In addition, the SonarScanner for NPM gets analysis parameters from different other sources: see the Configuring the scanner page.

Starting the scanner from the command line

1. Make sure the scanner is installed in global mode. See the Installing the scanner page for instructions.

2. Use the sonar-scanner command to start the analysis. To pass analysis parameters in the command line, use the standard -Dsonar.xxx=yyy syntax. Example:

sonar -Dsonar.host.url=https://<MY_SERVER>.com -Dsonar.token=<YOUR_TOKEN> -Dsonar.organization=<YOUR_ORGANIZATION_KEY> 

Passing a project key is optional: the scanner for NPM uses the name field of the package.json file as project key. However, you can override the project key by passing the -Dsonar.projectKey to the command line.

Starting the scanner from the command line with npx

• Use the npx @sonar/scan command to start the analysis. To pass analysis parameters in the command line, use the standard -Dsonar.xxx=yyy syntax. Example:

npx @sonar/scan -Dsonar.host.url=https://<MY_SERVER>.com -Dsonar.token=<YOUR_TOKEN>

Adding the analysis step to your build files

1. Make sure the scanner is installed in your project’s devDependencies: see the Installing the scanner page.

2. Code the analysis step in JS in your build files, as shown in the example below.

const scanner = require('@sonar/scan');
scanner(
  {
    serverUrl: 'https://sonarqube.mycompany.com',
    token: '019d1e2e04eefdcd0caee1468f39a45e69d33d3f', 
    options: {
      'sonar.projectName': 'My App',
      'sonar.projectDescription': 'Description for "My App" project...',
      'sonar.sources': 'src',
      'sonar.tests': 'test', 
    },
  },
  () => process.exit(),
);

Where the syntax is as follows:

scanner ( parameters, [callback] )

• parameters (format: Map)

  • serverUrl (format: String; optional): The URL of the SonarQube server. Defaults to the value of the SonarQube Cloud URL (sonar.scanner.cloudUrl property).

  • token (format: String; optional): The token used to connect to the SonarQube server or SonarQube Cloud. Empty by default. You can use a Personal Access Token or (recommended, from the Team plan) a Scoped Organization Token.

  • options (format: Map; optional): Used to pass extra parameters for the analysis. See Configuring the analysis parameters for more details.

• callback (format: Function; optional): Callback (the execution of the analysis is asynchronous).

Starting the scanner from the command line with pnpx

@sonar/scan has multiple binaries, so pnpx will ask which binary to provide. The approach recommended by pnpm is to use the following syntax:

pnpm --package=@sonar/scan dlx sonar -Dsonar.host.url=https://<MY_SERVER>.com -Dsonar.token=<YOUR_TOKEN>

Related pages

• Managing Personal Access Tokens

• Managing Scoped Organization Tokens