# Main branch analysis

SonarQube Cloud analyzes the **Main** branch every time a change is made to it.

1. Retrieve your project. See [retrieving-projects](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/managing-your-projects/retrieving-projects "mention") for details.
2. Go to **Summary**.
3. By default the summary page shows analysis results for the **Main** branch but you can change it to another branch or pull request.
4. View the analysis information at the top of the page, including:
   1. Visibility
   2. Lines of Code analyzed
   3. Version
   4. The amount of time that has passed since the last analysis.
   5. Last pull request and commit information.
5. View the assigned quality gate and status
6. See issues, security hotspots, coverage, duplications and dependency risks for new code and overall code.

<figure><img src="https://2223713658-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FB4UT2GNiZKjtxFtcFAL7%2Fuploads%2FV9HBIFzRPw0SsqmqtoFX%2Fproject-main-branch-summary.png?alt=media&#x26;token=99a6b1a5-075b-40a1-9701-7580755f5af8" alt="Overview of the project summary page"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

## Quality gate

The quality gate status for your main branch is displayed on the **Summary** page of the **Main** branch view. It shows the releasability status of the main branch of your project, answering the question, "Can I release my project today?"

A quality gate consists of a set of conditions like "Reliability is rated at least A", "Maintainability is rated at least B", and "Test coverage is at least 80%". These conditions are applied to analysis results to determine whether the code meets the level of quality required.

If the main branch meets or exceeds the quality gate conditions, it displays a **Passed** status:

<div align="left"><figure><img src="https://2223713658-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FB4UT2GNiZKjtxFtcFAL7%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-e19033f4e6467524df27c596a6645d8c72d72848%2Fb30d4ecef2b5a2536eb73de0e2ab793309768f0f.png?alt=media" alt="You will see this banner when the quality gate has failed." width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

If the main branch does not meet the quality gate conditions, it displays a **Failed** status:

<div align="left"><figure><img src="https://2223713658-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FB4UT2GNiZKjtxFtcFAL7%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-eda84495f351cd72fd35fcce01beb31dd07694c2%2F93c32f86776753bc35103990710bd20553af26e7.png?alt=media" alt="You will see this banner when the quality gate has passed." width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

### Built-in quality gate <a href="#built-in-quality-gate" id="built-in-quality-gate"></a>

SonarQube Cloud provides a built-in quality gate, called the *Sonar way* quality gate, enabled on the main branch by default. This quality gate reflects Sonar’s recommended settings. However, your requirements may differ, so you may wish to define a custom quality gate. For details see the [quality-gates](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/standards/quality-gates "mention") page.

## New code quality measures <a href="#new-code-quality-measures" id="new-code-quality-measures"></a>

When you first look at a newly analyzed project, it can be challenging to decide where to start fixing issues. To help with this, SonarQube Cloud encourages you to focus your efforts on *new code*. This is why we encourage users to set a suitable new code definition for their project.

To help you focus on recently changed code, the main branch summary displays a specific tab for new code.

Note that the new code quality measures and any quality gate that relies on them, like the default quality gate will only appear upon the *second* analysis performed *after* a new code definition has been set. See [configuring-new-code-calculation](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/managing-your-projects/project-analysis/configuring-new-code-calculation "mention") for more details.

### Setting a new code definition <a href="#setting-a-new-code-definition" id="setting-a-new-code-definition"></a>

Initially, when you start a new project, you may end up performing an analysis without first setting a new code definition. Selecting a new code definition for your project is an essential part of setting up SonarQube Cloud. Without one, the default quality gate won’t work. In this case, the system directs you to set up your new code definition, like this:

<div align="left"><figure><img src="https://2223713658-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FB4UT2GNiZKjtxFtcFAL7%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-e6278f5731d367bcc10206df16751b6251a5163c%2F700624709bc9524ba843caa9797629feabc37b3c.png?alt=media" alt="You will see this banner when the SonarQube Cloud quality gate has not been computed." width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

What counts as new code can differ from project to project, so SonarQube Cloud provides a few options. We strongly encourage all users to choose a new code definition suitable for their project.

Once you have set up a new code definition and performed another analysis, the quality gate status should appear. See [about-new-code](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/standards/about-new-code "mention") for more information.

## Overall code quality measures <a href="#overall-code-quality-measures" id="overall-code-quality-measures"></a>

In addition to new code quality measures, the main branch summary also displays the **Overall Code** quality measures in another tab. This tab shows the issues found in *all code*, including new code.

## Measures categories <a href="#measures-categories" id="measures-categories"></a>

The measures themselves are displayed as tiles corresponding to the following categories:

* **Reliability**: Details of issues with an impact on the reliability of your software.
* **Maintainability**: Details of issues with an impact on the maintainability of your software.
* **Security**: Details of issues with an impact on the security of your software.
* **Accepted issues**: Issues accepted by an authorized user if they
decide to fix the issue later or not fix the issue.

* **Coverage**: Displays the percentage of potentially testable lines of code that are *actually* covered by test cases. The lines of code that *could* be covered are referred to as the **lines to cover**. Of those **lines to cover**, those that are currently *not covered* are referred to as the **uncovered lines**. The coverage percentage calculation is, therefore: `coverage = 100 - (100 * uncovered_lines / lines_to_cover)`. Note that **lines to cover** only counts lines that are included in the coverage report and testable (for example, lines that are only composed of `}` are not counted). This differs from how duplicated lines are counted. For more details see the [overview](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/analyzing-source-code/test-coverage/overview "mention") of the test coverage page.
* **Duplications**: Identical lines of code detected. All lines of code into account (including non-testable lines). Since this differs from how coverage lines are counted, the final count for the two metrics may differ.
* **Security Hotspots**: Security-sensitive hotspots needing review.

Clicking on any figure takes you to a more detailed view, either in the **Measures** page or the **Issues** page.

## Incremental analysis <a href="#incremental-analysis" id="incremental-analysis"></a>

Some analyzers use the analysis cache mechanism to shorten the main branch analysis. See [incremental-analysis-mechanisms](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/analyzing-source-code/incremental-analysis-mechanisms "mention") for more information.

## Other analysis views <a href="#other-analysis-views" id="other-analysis-views"></a>

Go to **Pull requests** and **Branches** to access code review and analysis results for other branches and pull requests.

See the [branch-analysis](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/analyzing-source-code/branch-analysis/branch-analysis "mention") and [pull-request-analysis](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/analyzing-source-code/pull-request-analysis "mention") sections.

## Related pages

* [branch-analysis](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/analyzing-source-code/branch-analysis/branch-analysis "mention")
* [pull-request-analysis](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/analyzing-source-code/pull-request-analysis "mention")
* [managing-your-projects](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/managing-your-projects "mention")
* [quality-gates](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/standards/quality-gates "mention")
* [configuring-new-code-calculation](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/managing-your-projects/project-analysis/configuring-new-code-calculation "mention")
* [about-new-code](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/standards/about-new-code "mention")