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Simplify README to recommend default setup and refer to docs
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Henry Mercer committed Jul 28, 2023
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# CodeQL Action

This action runs GitHub's industry-leading semantic code analysis engine, [CodeQL](https://codeql.github.com/), against a repository's source code to find security vulnerabilities. It then automatically uploads the results to GitHub so they can be displayed in the repository's security tab. CodeQL runs an extensible set of [queries](https://github.com/github/codeql), which have been developed by the community and the [GitHub Security Lab](https://securitylab.github.com/) to find common vulnerabilities in your code.
This action runs GitHub's industry-leading semantic code analysis engine, [CodeQL](https://codeql.github.com/), against a repository's source code to find security vulnerabilities. It then automatically uploads the results to GitHub so they can be displayed on pull requests and in the repository's security tab. CodeQL runs an extensible set of [queries](https://github.com/github/codeql), which have been developed by the community and the [GitHub Security Lab](https://securitylab.github.com/) to find common vulnerabilities in your code.

For a list of recent changes, see the CodeQL Action's [changelog](CHANGELOG.md).

Expand All @@ -12,160 +12,9 @@ The underlying CodeQL CLI, used in this action, is licensed under the [GitHub Co

## Usage

This is a short walkthrough, but for more information read [configuring code scanning](https://help.github.com/en/github/finding-security-vulnerabilities-and-errors-in-your-code/configuring-code-scanning).
We recommend using default setup to configure CodeQL analysis for your repository. For more information, see "[Configuring default setup for code scanning](https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/code-scanning/automatically-scanning-your-code-for-vulnerabilities-and-errors/configuring-default-setup-for-code-scanning)."

To get code scanning results from CodeQL analysis on your repo you can use the following workflow as a template:

```yaml

name: "Code Scanning - Action"

on:
push:
branches: [main]
pull_request:
branches: [main]
schedule:
# ┌───────────── minute (0 - 59)
# │ ┌───────────── hour (0 - 23)
# │ │ ┌───────────── day of the month (1 - 31)
# │ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1 - 12 or JAN-DEC)
# │ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of the week (0 - 6 or SUN-SAT)
# │ │ │ │ │
# │ │ │ │ │
# │ │ │ │ │
# * * * * *
- cron: '30 1 * * 0'

jobs:
CodeQL-Build:
# CodeQL runs on ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, and macos-latest
runs-on: ubuntu-latest

permissions:
# required for all workflows
security-events: write

# only required for workflows in private repositories
actions: read
contents: read

steps:
- name: Checkout repository
uses: actions/checkout@v3

# Initializes the CodeQL tools for scanning.
- name: Initialize CodeQL
uses: github/codeql-action/init@v2
# Override language selection by uncommenting this and choosing your languages
# with:
# languages: go, javascript, csharp, python, cpp, java, ruby

# Autobuild attempts to build any compiled languages (C/C++, C#, Go, or Java).
# If this step fails, then you should remove it and run the build manually (see below).
- name: Autobuild
uses: github/codeql-action/autobuild@v2

# ℹ️ Command-line programs to run using the OS shell.
# 📚 See https://docs.github.com/en/actions/using-workflows/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions#jobsjob_idstepsrun

# ✏️ If the Autobuild fails above, remove it and uncomment the following
# three lines and modify them (or add more) to build your code if your
# project uses a compiled language

#- run: |
# make bootstrap
# make release

- name: Perform CodeQL Analysis
uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@v2
```
If you prefer to integrate this within an existing CI workflow, it should end up looking something like this:
```yaml
- name: Initialize CodeQL
uses: github/codeql-action/init@v2
with:
languages: go, javascript

# Here is where you build your code
- run: |
make bootstrap
make release
- name: Perform CodeQL Analysis
uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@v2
```
### Configuration file
Use the `config-file` parameter of the `init` action to enable the configuration file. The value of `config-file` is the path to the configuration file you want to use. This example loads the configuration file `./.github/codeql/codeql-config.yml`.

```yaml
- uses: github/codeql-action/init@v2
with:
config-file: ./.github/codeql/codeql-config.yml
```

The configuration file can be located in a different repository. This is useful if you want to share the same configuration across multiple repositories. If the configuration file is in a private repository you can also specify an `external-repository-token` option. This should be a personal access token that has read access to any repositories containing referenced config files and queries.

```yaml
- uses: github/codeql-action/init@v2
with:
config-file: owner/repo/codeql-config.yml@branch
external-repository-token: ${{ secrets.EXTERNAL_REPOSITORY_TOKEN }}
```

For information on how to write a configuration file, see "[Using a custom configuration file](https://help.github.com/en/github/finding-security-vulnerabilities-and-errors-in-your-code/configuring-code-scanning#using-a-custom-configuration-file)."

If you only want to customise the queries used, you can specify them in your workflow instead of creating a config file, using the `queries` property of the `init` action:

```yaml
- uses: github/codeql-action/init@v2
with:
queries: <local-or-remote-query>,<another-query>
```

By default, this will override any queries specified in a config file. If you wish to use both sets of queries, prefix the list of queries in the workflow with `+`:

```yaml
- uses: github/codeql-action/init@v2
with:
queries: +<local-or-remote-query>,<another-query>
```

### Configuration via `config` input

You can alternatively configure CodeQL using the `config` input to the `init` Action. The value of this input must be a YAML string that follows the configuration file format documented at "[Using a custom configuration file](https://aka.ms/code-scanning-docs/config-file)."

#### Example configuration

```yaml
- uses: github/codeql-action/init@v2
with:
languages: ${{ matrix.language }}
config: |
disable-default-queries: true
queries:
- uses: security-extended
- uses: security-and-quality
query-filters:
- include:
tags: /cwe-020/
```


#### Sharing configuration across multiple repositories

You can use Actions or environment variables to share configuration across multiple repositories and to modify configuration without needing to edit the workflow file. In the following example, `vars.CODEQL_CONF` is an [Actions configuration variable](https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/variables#defining-configuration-variables-for-multiple-workflows):

```yaml
- uses: github/codeql-action/init@v2
with:
languages: ${{ matrix.language }}
config: ${{ vars.CODEQL_CONF }}
```
You can also configure advanced setup for a repository to find security vulnerabilities in your code using a highly customizable code scanning configuration. For more information, see "[Configuring advanced setup for code scanning](https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/code-scanning/automatically-scanning-your-code-for-vulnerabilities-and-errors/configuring-advanced-setup-for-code-scanning)" and "[Customizing code scanning](https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/code-scanning/automatically-scanning-your-code-for-vulnerabilities-and-errors/customizing-code-scanning)."

## Troubleshooting

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