Enable Azure pull request comments

YOUR DEPLOYMENT JOURNEY

• You have gained the necessary resource access and permissions required for deployment.
• You have created a Semgrep account and organization.
• You have connected your source code manager.
• Optionally, you have set up SSO.
• You have successfully added a Semgrep job to your CI workflow with diff-aware scanning.

Semgrep can create pull request (PR) comments in your Azure DevOps repository. These comments provide a description of the issue detected by Semgrep and may offer possible solutions. These comments are a means for security teams, or any team responsible for creating standards, to help their fellow developers write safe and standards-compliant code.

Conditions for PR comment creation

PR comments appear for the following types of scans under these conditions:

Type of scan	Product name	Trigger condition	How to set up
Static application security testing (SAST)	Semgrep Code	A comment appears when Semgrep generates a finding for a rule included in a remediation policy configured to leave PR or MR comments. This lets you customize which findings generate comments for developers.	Complete the steps in the following sections: 1. Confirm your Semgrep account’s connection and access to your source code manager. 2. Configure comments for Semgrep Code.
Software composition analysis (SCA)	Semgrep Supply Chain (SSC)	A comment appears based on the conditions you explicitly set in a remediation policy or when Semgrep detects a license violation.	To receive Supply Chain comments, complete the steps in Confirm account connection and access and set up a policy. To receive license violation comments, enable dependency search.
Secrets	Semgrep Secrets	A comment appears when Semgrep generates a finding for a rule included in a remediation policy configured to leave PR or MR comments.	Complete the steps in the following sections: 1. Confirm your Semgrep account’s connection and access to your source code manager. 2. Configure comments for Semgrep Secrets.

Set up PR comments

1. Ensure that you meet the prerequisites

   Semgrep currently supports repositories hosted by Azure DevOps Cloud.

   In addition to finishing the previous steps in your deployment journey, it is recommended to have completed a full scan on your default branch for the repository in which you want to receive comments.

2. Confirm your Semgrep account's connection

   PR comments are enabled by default for users who have connected their Azure DevOps project to Semgrep AppSec Platform. Confirm that you have the correct connection and access:
3. Set up the configuration file

   The logic to determine whether Semgrep runs a full scan or a diff-aware scan on a pull request is defined in the azure-pipelines.yaml file.

   For PR comments and accurate diff-aware scan analysis to work, you must set two environment variables: SEMGREP_PR_ID, which identifies the pull request, and SEMGREP_BASELINE_REF, which defines the repository’s default branch used as the comparison baseline, such as main or master. Specifying the default branch helps Semgrep understand the differences between the current branch and the main line of development and to generate meaningful results and PR comments.

   Click to see a sample workflow file

   pool:
   vmImage: ubuntu-latest
   variables:
   - group: Semgrep_Variables
   
   steps:
   - checkout: self
   clean: true
   fetchDepth: 20
   persistCredentials: true
   # Replace master with the repository default branch if different.
   - script: |
       python -m pip install --upgrade pipx
       pipx install semgrep
       if [ $(Build.SourceBranchName) = "master" ]; then
           echo "Semgrep full scan"
           semgrep ci
       elif [ $(System.PullRequest.PullRequestId) -ge 0 ]; then
           echo "Semgrep diff scan"
           export SEMGREP_PR_ID=$(System.PullRequest.PullRequestId)
           export SEMGREP_BASELINE_REF='origin/master'
           git fetch origin master:origin/master
           semgrep ci
       fi
   env:
       SEMGREP_APP_TOKEN: $(SEMGREP_APP_TOKEN)
   
4. Configure pull request comments

   Once you have set up the connection between Semgrep and Azure DevOps, you can create a remediation policy that lets you define the conditions under which Semgrep leaves a pull request comment. This customization enables you to:

   • Manage the amount of PR comments your developers receive.
   • Ensure that only rules that meet your criteria, such as high severity or high confidence rules, produce comments visible to developers, reducing noise.

   Note: If you are using Azure Pipelines to run Semgrep, set SEMGREP_PR_ID and SEMGREP_BASELINE_REF in your pipeline as described in Set up the configuration file.

Optional features

Customize PR comments

You can customize the comments Semgrep leaves on your PR. Custom comments allow you to direct your teams to the resources they need to handle the vulnerabilities Semgrep identifies in their code.

To provide custom PR comments:

1. Sign in to Semgrep AppSec Platform.

2. Navigate to Settings > General > Global.

3. Go to the Custom PR/MR comments footers section.

4. Provide a custom comment for each Semgrep product whose findings you want to generate a PR comment. Semgrep supports HTML, Markdown, and plaintext links in your message.

5. Click Save changes.

Enable Rule-defined fix in Azure repositories

Autofix is a Semgrep feature in which rules contain suggested fixes to resolve findings.

To enable Rule-defined fix for all projects in your Semgrep AppSec Platform organization, follow these steps:

1. In Semgrep AppSec Platform, go to Settings > General > Code.

2. Click the Autofix toggle to enable this feature.

Next steps

You’ve finished setting up a core deployment of Semgrep 🎉.

• Explore recommended tasks after deployment in Beyond core deployment.

Additional references

Why am I not receiving PR or MR comments?

Why did the comments on a PR or MR not appear inline?