About CodeQL workspaces

About CodeQL workspaces

A CodeQL workspace is typically used to develop a set of library and query packs that depend on each other. When you use a CodeQL workspace, all the CodeQL packs in the workspace are available as source dependencies for each other when you run a CodeQL command that resolves queries. This makes it easier to develop, maintain, and publish multiple, related CodeQL packs. For more information on CodeQL packs, see Customizing analysis with CodeQL packs.

Workspaces are commonly stored in a single Git repository so that related packs can be developed and published together.

Source dependencies

In a CodeQL workspace, all packs included in the workspace are treated as source dependencies of each other. This means they are resolved directly from the local file system rather than from the CodeQL package cache.

Because workspace packs resolve from source:

• Local changes in one pack are immediately visible to other packs in the workspace.
• Dependencies found in the workspace override versions in the package cache.
• Version constraints in qlpack.yml files are ignored for workspace dependencies, since the version is determined by the workspace content.

This behavior is particularly useful when developing multiple related packs at the same time. For example:

• A dependency has not yet been published and exists only locally.
• You are making coordinated changes across several packs and need them to resolve against each other during testing.

Outside of a workspace, dependencies are resolved from the package cache and must match the version constraints defined in qlpack.yml. Inside a workspace, resolution prioritizes local source content instead.

CodeQL workspaces and query resolution

The workspace dependency model affects how packs are installed and published.

• During installation, dependencies found in the workspace are not downloaded into the package cache and are not written to the codeql-pack.lock.yml file.
• During publishing, dependencies provided by the workspace are bundled using their local source content rather than versions from the package cache.

For example, running codeql pack install in a pack directory within a workspace uses any dependencies found in the workspace instead of downloading them into the package cache or recording them in the codeql-pack.lock.yml file. See Creating and working with CodeQL packs.

Example

A CodeQL workspace is defined by a YAML file named codeql-workspace.yml. Consider the following codeql-workspace.yml file:

provide:
  - "**/qlpack.yml"

And the following CodeQL library pack qlpack.yml file in the workspace:

name: my-company/my-library
library: true
version: 1.0.0

And the following CodeQL query pack qlpack.yml file in the workspace:

name: my-company/my-queries
version: 1.0.0
dependencies:
  my-company/my-library: "*"
  codeql/cpp-all: ~0.2.0

Notice that the dependencies block for the CodeQL query pack, my-company/my-queries, specifies "*" as the version of the library pack. Since the library pack is already defined as a source dependency in codeql-workspace.yml, the library pack’s content is always resolved from inside the workspace. Any version constraint you define will be ignored in this case. Using "*" for source dependencies makes it explicit that the version is inherited from the workspace.

When you execute codeql pack install from the query pack directory, an appropriate version of codeql/cpp-all is downloaded to the local package cache. Also, a codeql-pack.lock.yml file is created that contains the resolved version of codeql/cpp-all. The lock file won’t contain an entry for my-company/my-library since it is resolved from source dependencies. The codeql-pack.lock.yml file will look something like this:

dependencies:
  codeql/cpp-all:
    version: 0.2.2

When you execute codeql pack publish from the query pack directory, the codeql/cpp-all dependency from the package cache and the my-company/my-library from the workspace are bundled with my-company/my-queries and published to the GitHub container registry.

Example of a codeql-workspace.yml file

A CodeQL workspace is defined by a YAML file named codeql-workspace.yml. This file contains a provide block, and optionally ignore and registries blocks.

• The provide block contains a list of glob patterns that define the CodeQL packs that are available in the workspace.

• The ignore block contains a list of glob patterns that define CodeQL packs that are not available in the workspace.

• The registries block contains a list of GHES URLs and package patterns that control which container registry is used for publishing CodeQL packs. See Publishing and using CodeQL packs.

Each entry in the provide or ignore section must map to the location of a qlpack.yml file. All glob patterns are defined relative to the directory that contains the workspace file. For a list of patterns accepted in this file, see @actions/glob.

For example, the following codeql-workspace.yml file defines a workspace that contains all the CodeQL packs recursively found in the codeql-packs directory, except for the packs in the experimental directory. The registries block specifies that codeql/\* packs should be downloaded from https://ghcr.io/v2/, which is GitHub’s default container registry. All other packs should be downloaded from and published to the registry at GHE_HOSTNAME.

provide:
  - "*/codeql-packs/**/qlpack.yml"
ignore:
  - "*/codeql-packs/**/experimental/**/qlpack.yml"

registries:
 - packages: 'codeql/*'
   url: https://ghcr.io/v2/

 - packages: '*'
   url: https://containers.GHE_HOSTNAME/v2/

You can list the packs included in a workspace by running codeql pack ls in the workspace directory.

Using ${workspace} as a version range in qlpack.yml files

CodeQL packs in a workspace can use the special ${workspace}, ~${workspace}, and ^${workspace} version range placeholders. These placeholders indicate that this pack depends on the version of the specified pack that is currently in the workspace. This placeholder is typically used for dependencies inside of library packs to ensure that when they are published, the dependencies in their qlpack.yml file reflect the state of the workspace when they were published.

Example

Consider the following two library packs in the same workspace:

name: my-company/my-library
library: true
version: 1.2.3
dependencies:
  my-company/my-library2: ${workspace}

name: my-company/my-library2
library: true
version: 4.5.6

When my-company/my-library is published to the GitHub container registry, the version of the my-company/my-library2 dependency in the published qlpack.yml file will be written as 4.5.6.

Similarly, if the dependency is my-company/my-library2: ^${workspace} in the source pack, and then the pack is published, the version of the my-company/my-library2 dependency in the published qlpack.yml file will be written as ^4.5.6, indicating that versions >= 4.5.6 and < 5.0.0 are all compatible with this library pack.

If the dependency is my-company/my-library2: ~${workspace} in the source pack, and then the pack is published, the version of the my-company/my-library2 dependency in the published qlpack.yml file will be written as ~4.5.6, indicating that versions >= 4.5.6 and < 4.6.0 are all compatible with this library pack.