Commands reference

A complete reference for SonarQube CLI commands, with arguments, options, defaults, and examples.

Warning: This product is in Beta stage and we may release breaking changes.

This page documents every SonarQube CLI command. Find the full SonarQube CLI command reference, including options and examples, at cli.sonarqube.com. A machine-readable version of the command reference is also available as JSON at cli.sonarqube.com/data/commands.json.

Each entry includes a description, the arguments and options it accepts (with types, defaults, and whether they are required), and runnable examples.

For longer-form guides on how to use these commands, see Overview, Overview, and Overview.

Commands at a glance

Group	Commands
Authentication	sonar auth login, logout, status
Integrations	sonar integrate claude, copilot, codex, git
Analysis	sonar analyze, analyze secrets, analyze agentic, analyze dependency-risks, remediate
Information	sonar list issues, list projects, api
Configuration	sonar config telemetry
Maintenance	sonar self-update

Command	Description
sonar auth	Manage authentication tokens and credentials.
sonar api	Make authenticated API requests to SonarQube.
sonar integrate	Set up SonarQube integration for AI coding agents, git, and others.
sonar list	List issues and projects from SonarQube.
sonar remediate	Trigger AI agent remediation for eligible issues (SonarQube Cloud only).
sonar analyze	Run secrets scanning and Agentic Analysis on the local change set (default when no subcommand is given); subcommands cover SCA and targeted scans.
sonar verify	Deprecated. Agentic Analysis only. Use sonar analyze or sonar analyze agentic instead.
sonar config	Configure CLI settings.
sonar self-update	Update sonar CLI to the latest version.

---

sonar auth

Manage authentication tokens and credentials.

sonar auth login

Authenticate via browser and save credentials in the system keychain. Must be run manually; AI agents cannot complete this flow. For CI/CD and automation, use environment variables instead.

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--server, -s	string	No	Your SonarQube Server URL, SonarQube Cloud EU (https://sonarcloud.io), or SonarQube Cloud US (https://sonarqube.us). When omitted, the CLI prompts you to choose server and region.	-
--org, -o	string	No	Your SonarQube Cloud organization key. If omitted when authenticating to SonarQube Cloud, the CLI auto-selects your organization when you belong to exactly one, or prompts you to choose when you belong to multiple organizations.	-

Examples:

Interactive login (prompts for server type, region, and organization):

sonar auth login

Interactive login with a pre-selected server (skips the server and region prompts):

# SonarQube Server (self-hosted)
sonar auth login --server <YourSonarQubeServerURL>
# Also works with SonarCloud EU or US region URLs
sonar auth login --server "https://sonarcloud.io"
sonar auth login --server "https://sonarqube.us"

For CI/CD pipelines and headless environments, use environment variables instead of sonar auth login.

---

sonar auth logout

Remove the active connection token from the keychain. The CLI also best-effort revokes the token server-side when it was created via the interactive browser flow.

Examples:

sonar auth logout

---

sonar auth status

Show the active authentication connection and verify the token against the server.

Examples:

sonar auth status

---

sonar integrate

For step-by-step setup guides, see Overview.

sonar integrate claude

Set up the SonarQube integration for Claude Code. Installs secrets-scanning hooks and configures the SonarQube MCP server, SonarQube Agentic Analysis, and Context Augmentation (on SonarQube Cloud).

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--project, -p	string	No	Project key. Ignored when --global is used.	-
--non-interactive	boolean	No	Non-interactive mode (no prompts).	-
--global, -g	boolean	No	Install hooks and config globally to ~/.claude instead of project directory.	-
--skip-context	boolean	No	Skip the Context Augmentation install and skill setup.	-

Examples:

sonar integrate claude -p my-project
sonar integrate claude -g
sonar integrate claude -p my-project --skip-context

---

sonar integrate copilot

Set up the SonarQube integration for GitHub Copilot. Installs secrets-scanning hooks and configures the SonarQube MCP server, SonarQube Agentic Analysis, and Context Augmentation (on SonarQube Cloud).

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--global, -g	boolean	No	Install hooks and config globally to ~/.copilot instead of project directory.	-
--project, -p	string	No	Project key. Mutually exclusive with --global.	-
--skip-context	boolean	No	Skip the Context Augmentation install and skill setup.	-

Examples:

sonar integrate copilot -p my-project
sonar integrate copilot -g
sonar integrate copilot -p my-project --skip-context

---

sonar integrate codex

Set up the SonarQube integration for OpenAI Codex. Installs a UserPromptSubmit secrets hook, MCP configuration, and (on SonarQube Cloud, when entitled) Agentic Analysis instructions and Context Augmentation. See OpenAI Codex.

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--project, -p	string	No	Project key. Mutually exclusive with --global.	-
--global, -g	boolean	No	Install hook and config globally to ~/.codex instead of project directory.	-
--skip-context	boolean	No	Skip Context Augmentation install and skill setup.	-

Examples:

sonar integrate codex -p my-project
sonar integrate codex -g

---

sonar integrate git

Install a Git hook that scans staged files (pre-commit) or unpushed commits (pre-push) for secrets.

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--hook	string	No	Hook to install: pre-commit (scan staged files) or pre-push (scan files in unpushed commits).	-
--force	boolean	No	Overwrite an existing hook if it is not from sonar integrate git.	-
--non-interactive	boolean	No	Non-interactive mode (no prompts).	-
--global	boolean	No	Install hook globally for all repositories (sets git config --global core.hooksPath).	-

Examples:

sonar integrate git
sonar integrate git --hook pre-push
sonar integrate git --global
sonar integrate git --hook pre-push --global --non-interactive

---

Analysis

sonar analyze

Run every analysis the CLI supports on your local change set: secrets scanning first, then Agentic Analysis (SonarQube Cloud only). This is the recommended command before a commit or pull request. See Analyzing local changes.

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--file	string	No	Analyze a single file (skips change-set detection).	-
--staged	boolean	No	Analyze staged files only (git diff --cached).	-
--base	string	No	Analyze files changed vs a branch or ref (e.g. main).	-
--force	boolean	No	Skip the large change-set confirmation prompt.	-
--format	string	No	Output format (text, json).	text

Note: --branch and --project are available on sonar analyze agentic but not on the bare sonar analyze command. Use sonar analyze agentic when you need those options.

Examples:

sonar analyze
sonar analyze --staged
sonar analyze --base main --format json

---

sonar analyze secrets

Scan files or standard input for hardcoded secrets.

Arguments:

Argument	Description
[paths…]	File or directory paths to scan for secrets.

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--stdin	boolean	No	Read from standard input instead of paths.	-
--disable-entropy-filter	boolean	No	Report low-entropy matches (e.g. placeholder or example secrets) that would normally be silently dropped. Reported as low-confidence, with the filter name appended to the issue message.	false
--disable-test-file-detection	boolean	No	Stop filtering out files automatically identified as test files. Findings in those files are reported as low-confidence, with the filter name appended to the issue message. Has no effect on files explicitly declared as tests via sonar.tests.	false

Exit behavior: exits with code 51 when secrets are found, 0 when none are found. See Exit codes.

Examples:

Scan a file:

sonar analyze secrets src/config.ts

Scan a directory:

sonar analyze secrets src/

Scan stdin:

cat .env | sonar analyze secrets --stdin

Surface low-confidence matches for evaluation:

sonar analyze secrets src/ --disable-entropy-filter --disable-test-file-detection

sonar analyze secrets allowlist

Maintain a persistent list of known secrets that the scanner should ignore. Entries are stored as SHA-256 hashes on disk; the file lives next to the CLI binary by default and can be relocated via the SONAR_SECRETS_CACHE_DIR environment variable.

Subcommand	Description
allowlist add [--key <key>]	Add a secret interactively or via stdin. The optional --key flag provides a human-readable identifier ([0-9a-zA-Z_-]).
allowlist remove	Remove an entry by its key.
allowlist show	List all allowlisted keys.
allowlist clear	Remove all entries from the allowlist.

Examples:

sonar analyze secrets allowlist add --key test-fixture-aws
sonar analyze secrets allowlist show
sonar analyze secrets allowlist remove
sonar analyze secrets allowlist clear

Custom secret rules from SonarQube Server

When the SonarQube CLI is authenticated, sonar analyze secrets automatically downloads and executes custom secret rules (instances of rule template S6784) defined on the connected SonarQube Server instance. Rules are cached locally and refreshed on each run. If the download fails, the SonarQube CLI falls back to a stale cache with a warning. No CLI flag is required. Custom secret rules are not yet available on SonarQube Cloud; support is planned.

---

sonar analyze agentic

Run server-side SonarQube Agentic Analysis on local changes (SonarQube Cloud only). Limitations apply; see Agentic Analysis on sonarsource.com.

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--file	string	No	Analyze a single file (skips change-set detection).	-
--staged	boolean	No	Analyze staged files only (git diff --cached).	-
--base	string	No	Analyze files changed vs a branch or ref (e.g. main).	-
--branch	string	No	Branch name for analysis context.	-
--project, -p	string	No	SonarQube Cloud project key (overrides auto-detected project).	-
--force	boolean	No	Skip the large change-set confirmation prompt.	-
--format	string	No	Output format (text, json).	text

Note: The CLI prompts for confirmation when the change set exceeds 50 files. Pass --force to skip the prompt, or use --format json (which suppresses the prompt automatically).

Exit behavior: exits with code 51 when issues are reported. See Exit codes.

Examples:

sonar analyze agentic                       # local change set
sonar analyze agentic --file src/app.ts     # single file
sonar analyze agentic --staged              # staged files only
sonar analyze agentic --base main           # changes vs main

---

sonar analyze dependency-risks

Run Software Composition Analysis (SCA) against the project's dependencies and report unresolved dependency risks (vulnerabilities, malware, and prohibited licenses). Requires SonarQube Advanced Security with SCA enabled on the project (SonarQube Cloud, or SonarQube Server 2026.4+). For the full workflow, see Software Composition Analysis (SCA).

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--project, -p	string	Yes	Project key.	-
--format	string	No	Output format (table, json).	table
--statuses	string	No	Filter by status. Accepts presets (active → NEW,OPEN,CONFIRM; to_fix → NEW,OPEN,CONFIRM,ACCEPT; all → NEW,OPEN,CONFIRM,ACCEPT,SAFE,FIXED) and raw statuses (NEW, OPEN, CONFIRM, ACCEPT, SAFE, FIXED). Comma-separated; case-insensitive; result is the union of every token.	active

Exit behavior: exits with code 51 when unresolved risks are found, 1 on analysis errors, 0 otherwise. See Exit codes.

Note: First run downloads a scanner binary. SonarQube CLI fetches the sca-scanner-cli binary from binaries.sonarsource.com and caches it under ~/.sonar/sonarqube-cli/bin/. Subsequent runs reuse the cached binary.

Examples:

sonar analyze dependency-risks -p my-project                          # active risks, table output
sonar analyze dependency-risks -p my-project --format json            # JSON for agents and scripts
sonar analyze dependency-risks -p my-project --statuses to_fix        # only what needs fixing
sonar analyze dependency-risks -p my-project --statuses all           # include accepted and safe

---

sonar verify (deprecated)

Warning: Deprecated. sonar verify runs Agentic Analysis only and prints a deprecation warning. Use sonar analyze (secrets + agentic) or sonar analyze agentic instead.

Accepts the same options as sonar analyze agentic.

Examples:

sonar verify --staged   # prefer: sonar analyze agentic --staged

---

sonar remediate

Trigger AI-agent remediation for eligible issues (SonarQube Cloud only). Eligibility is determined server-side: only issues the SonarQube remediation agent can fix are surfaced.

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--project, -p	string	No	SonarQube Cloud project key (overrides auto-detected project).	-
--issues	string	No	Comma-separated issue keys to remediate non-interactively (max 20). Required when stdin is not a TTY.	-

Examples:

Pick issues interactively:

sonar remediate -p my-project

Non-interactively remediate specific issues (suitable for scripts):

sonar remediate -p my-project --issues issue-key-1,issue-key-2

---

Information

sonar list issues

Search for issues in a SonarQube project.

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--project, -p	string	Yes	Project key.	-
--statuses	string	No	Filter by status (comma-separated list of: OPEN, CONFIRMED, FALSE_POSITIVE, ACCEPTED, FIXED).	-
--severities	string	No	Filter by severity (comma-separated list of: INFO, MINOR, MAJOR, CRITICAL, BLOCKER).	-
--format	string	No	Output format (json, toon, table, csv); see Output formats.	json
--branch	string	No	Branch name.	-
--pull-request	string	No	Pull request ID.	-
--page-size	number	No	Page size (1-500).	500
--page	number	No	Page number.	1

Examples:

sonar analyze secrets src/config.ts

Scan multiple files for hardcoded secrets.

sonar analyze secrets src/file1.ts src/file2.ts

Scan stdin for hardcoded secrets.

cat .env | sonar analyze secrets --stdin

---

sonar list projects

Search for projects the active token can access.

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--query, -q	string	No	Search query to filter projects by name or key.	-
--page	number	No	Page number.	1
--page-size	number	No	Page size (1-500).	500

Output is always JSON. Pipe through jq if you need to transform it.

Examples:

sonar list projects
sonar list projects -q my-project
sonar list projects --page 2 --page-size 50

---

sonar api

Make authenticated requests to any SonarQube Web API endpoint. Useful for advanced workflows that aren't covered by other commands.

Arguments:

Argument	Description
<method>	HTTP method (get, post, patch, put, delete).
<endpoint>	API endpoint path. Must start with / and can contain query parameters.

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--data, -d	string	No	JSON string for the request body. See request body encoding below.	-
--verbose, -v	boolean	No	Print request and response details for debugging.	-

Note: Request body encoding. The CLI picks an encoding based on the endpoint path:

• Endpoints starting with /api/v2/, or endpoints that don't start with /api/, receive a JSON body (Content-Type: application/json).

• All other endpoints (the SonarQube Web API v1, paths under /api/) receive URL-encoded form data (Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded).

This matches what each Web API endpoint expects. You don't need to override it.

Examples:

List favorite projects:

sonar api get "/api/favorites/search"

Search for rules in an organization:

sonar api get "/api/rules/search?organization=my-org&languages=ts"

Generate a new user token:

sonar api post "/api/user_tokens/generate" --data '{"name":"my-new-token"}'

Accept an issue:

sonar api post "/api/issues/do_transition" --data '{"issue":"AYx1z2","transition":"accept"}'

Debug a request:

sonar api get "/api/system/status" --verbose

Get the current analysis engine JAR info (V2 API):

sonar api get "/analysis/engine"

Revoke a user token:

sonar api post "/api/user_tokens/revoke" --data '{"name":"my-token"}'

---

Configuration

sonar config telemetry

Enable or disable the collection of anonymous usage statistics and crash reports. See Telemetry and privacy for what's collected.

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--enabled	boolean	No	Enable collection of anonymous usage statistics.	-
--disabled	boolean	No	Disable collection of anonymous usage statistics.	-

Examples:

sonar config telemetry --enabled
sonar config telemetry --disabled

---

Maintenance

sonar self-update

Update the CLI to the latest version. Re-uses the install script that put sonar on your system; your saved state and credentials are preserved. See Updating the CLI for details.

Options:

Option	Type	Required	Description	Default
--status	boolean	No	Check for a newer version without installing.	-
--force	boolean	No	Install the latest version even if already up to date.	-

Examples:

sonar self-update
sonar self-update --status
sonar self-update --force

Related pages

• Environment variables

• Output formats

• Exit codes