Connected mode setup

Setting up connected mode and sharing your connection with your team is the easiest way to get started with using the Sonar Solution to bring SonarQube's AI capabilities into your IDE.

Connection setup

SonarQube for Visual Studio provides a connection wizard to help you set up Connected mode with SonarQube (Server, Cloud) or SonarQube Community Build. From version 7.4, you can share a setup configuration file with your team, simplifying the process.

Automatic setup with SonarQube Server

SonarQube Server and SonarQube Community Build offer the easiest way to set up connected mode: simply use the Opening issues in the IDE feature from SonarQube Server or SonarQube Community Build. You must trust the server to store a token for the connection, and it’s best if you already have the project open in your IDE.

If something doesn’t work, check the Troubleshooting connected mode setup, or follow the instructions below to manually create a SonarQube connection.

Create a new SonarQube Connection

Open the SonarQube Manage Project Binding wizard in Visual Studio by navigating to Extensions > SonarQube for Visual Studio > Connected Mode > Bind to SonarQube (Server, Cloud)…. The current Binding Status will be shown. Next, select Manage Connections to open a list of your Existing Connections and choose New Connection to create a new connection.

Choose SonarQube Server as your connection type, enter your SonarQube Server URL, and select Next to continue. The server URL is the same if you’re using SonarQube Community Build.

Add the SonarQube Server details to set up your connection with SonarQube for Visual Studio.

Lastly, enter your user token.

  • To generate a new user token, navigate to User > My Account > Security in SonarQube Server or simply use the Generate hyperlink to open the page in SonarQube Server, which will use the URL you provided earlier. If or when your user token expires, SonarQube for Visual Studio will show you a warning icon in the Manage Connections window.

User tokens are required when setting up connected mode between SonarQube Server and SonarQube for Visual Studio. Note that binding will not function properly if SonarQube Server project tokens or global tokens are used during the setup process.

Using Credentials to set up connected mode has been deprecated.

The final steps involve binding your local project to the project on the server. See below for more details.

First-time connection setup for shared binding

One team member must step through the first-time setup process, then export and commit the binding configuration to the repository. Any team member who opens the project while running SonarQube for IDE will automatically receive a notification to bind the project. Each team member must use their own project credentials and SonarQube for IDE will use the binding details found in the configuration file to complete the connection.

To begin, one person from the team must follow the steps outlined in Using the connection wizard and Configure your binding, then follow the Save and share your setup instructions below to save the project configuration for the rest of the team.

Using the connection wizard

Connected mode

Follow the Connection setup instructions above for your SonarQube (Server, Cloud) or SonarQube Community Build connection.

Configure your binding

Bind your project

First, select your Connection to bind:

  • If you don’t already have the Manage Project Binding wizard open, navigate to Extensions > SonarQube > Connected Mode > Bind to SonarQube (Server, Cloud) ….

  • Choose your Connection to bind from the list to define your server.

Then, choose your Project to bind:

  • Select the Select Project button choose your project from the list of Existing Projects. The Select Project button will open a list of your projects found on the server.

    • If your search did not find a match (for example, this can happen when there are more than 10,000 projects exist for your organization), you have the option to manually enter a project key.

  • Select the Select button, and select Bind to complete the binding. You will receive a confirmation if the binding is a success.

Lastly, follow the Save and share your setup: Recommended for teams instructions below to save the project configuration for the rest of the team.

Manage existing bindings

To return to the Manage Project Binding wizard after setting up connected mode, go to Extensions > SonarQube > Connected Mode > Manage Binding.

For Tfvc users

Additional notes for Tfvc users

If you are using Team Foundation Version Control and have C# or VB.NET projects in your solution, it is possible that you will see some additional dialogs from Tfvc appearing when binding finishes. If your solution does not contain C# or VB.NET projects, you can disregard the rest of this section.

Tfvc might pop up one or more dialogs like the one below warning that files outside the workspace are being referenced and asking for confirmation that this is ok. These files are used to configure analysis for C# and VB.NET, and do not need to be under source control. Select Add the item to dismiss the dialog.

Select Add the item to close out the Tfvc pop-ups. They will not appear again.

Once you have dismissed the Tfvc dialogs, they should not appear again.

Save and share your setup: Recommended for teams

Save the connection binding

After completing the steps outlined in the Using the connection wizard section above, go to Visual Studio Extensions > SonarQube > Connected Mode and select Share Configuration.

A .json file will be added to your .sonarlint folder containing the SonarQube URI & Project Key, or SonarQube Cloud Organization & Project Key.

Share the binding configuration

Commit the file you just created in the working directory; your teammates should have access to the binding configuration once your commit becomes part of the repository.

Because your Project’s identifying information is saved in a location under source control, it will be available to anyone with access to the project repo. Each team member is still required to have their own SonarQube (Server, Cloud) credentials; these are managed in

Each team member is still required to have their own SonarQube Server or SonarQube Cloud connection and credentials.

Bind using shared configuration

Once one team member has saved the shared project configuration, additional team members will have a streamlined process when configuring their project binding. To achieve this, SonarQube for Visual Studio automatically looks for the .sonarlint folder; if it’s available and the shared configuration file is there, SonarQube for Visual Studio will offer you a gold bar to streamline the setup.

SonarQube for Visual Studio will show you a gold bar if it detects a matching folder on the server. It's there to help streamline the binding process and complete your connected mode setup.

Select the Bind option from the gold bar to continue setting up your connection to the server using the shared settings. If you already have a connection to the correct server, the binding will start automatically.

If you don’t already have a connection, you will receive a notification. In this case, select OK on the notification and select Manage Connections from the Manage Project Binding wizard to manually create a connection. In the Manage Connections window, step through the connection setup by selecting either SonarQube Server or SonarQube Cloud to add your user token, as it is described above in Connection setup.

If you wish to opt out of using the shared connection settings and select Don’t show this again, the gold bar will no longer appear. To accept a shared configuration, select the Use Shared Configuration option from the Manage Project Binding window.

Sharing configurations between different IDEs

SonarQube for IDE extensions are available for IntelliJ (and other Jet Brains IDEs), Visual Studio, VS Code, and Eclipse. Although the information stored in the shared configuration file is the same, each extension might export the JSON file to a slightly different location depending on IDE and project type. This may cause friction when opening a configuration in an IDE other than the IDE that created it.

If SonarQube for IDE does not send you a notification to accept a shared configuration, please check first if you have opened your project’s root. If SonarQube for IDE still does not suggest a matching configuration, you must configure binding manually. Please see the Configure your binding collapsible above for instructions.

SonarQube for Visual Studio does not support generic connections. The file name of the shared configuration JSON file must match the currently opened solution name when binding a solution, or the currently opened folder name when binding a folder (for example, in a CMake project).

Project binding

When you bind a project, SonarQube for Visual Studio uses the Quality Profile defined on the server to decide which rules to run locally, and which rule parameters to use. When you mark a particular issue as "safe" or "won’t fix" on the server, the corresponding issue will be ignored in the IDE. Check these pages for details about managing your quality profile:

When running in connected mode with SonarQube Server 10.4 or newer, Won’t Fix becomes Accept.

Synchronization with the server

The local connected mode configuration files can sometimes get out of step with settings on the SonarQube (Server, Cloud) or SonarQube Community Build servers for example, when a quality profile for the project is changed (on the server).

Synchronization between SonarQube Server and SonarQube for Visual Studio is almost instantaneous. For example, when changes are made to the quality profile, SonarQube Server sends SonarQube for Visual Studio an event notice; with SonarQube Cloud, SonarQube for Visual Studio checks the SonarQube Cloud server every ten minutes to listen for changes.

Unbinding a project

To unbind your project from SonarQube Server or SonarQube Cloud, navigate to Extensions > SonarQube > Connected Mode > Manage Binding to open the Manage Project Binding window, and select Unbind.

It’s very easy to rebind the project if you’ve already set up a shared configuration. See the Bind using shared configuration article above for more details.

Updating your credentials

From SonarLint for Visual Studio version 8.7, you can edit your authentication details in the SonarQube for Visual Studio UI.

Open the SonarLint Manage Project Binding wizard (Extensions > SonarQube > Connected Mode > Bind to SonarQube (Server, Cloud)…, and select Manage Connections. There, you can select the pencil to edit your connection.

Use the Manage Connections window to edit your SonarQube (Server, Cloud) connection setup.

SonarQube for IDE-SonarQube Server version support policy

SonarQube for IDE enables users to establish a connection to the latest SonarQube Server version and to the latest LTA (Long-Term Active) version. When a new LTA version is released, we still enable connecting SonarQube for IDE to the previous LTA version for a certain period of time (currently 9 months after the latest LTA release) to allow enough time for organizations to update their SonarQube Server version.

For more information about long-term support of SonarQube Server, check out our page describing the SonarQube Server Release cycle model. Review your SonarQube for IDE-specific requirements for version-to-version differences.

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

Legacy connected mode

Before SonarLint for Visual Studio version 7.0 (released in June 2023), connected mode behaved a bit differently. Please see the Previous versions page for the important details.

In addition, the process of setting up connected mode in versions 8.3 and earlier looks a bit different; all of this content was moved to the Legacy connected mode article on the Previous versions page.

PreviousConnected modeNextMigrate connected mode to v7

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