A framework of IDE extensions and language analyzers that provide inline security analysis in the dev environment as the developer writes code. It has a flexible rule model that supports multiple programming languages. The goal is to notify the developer as they are introducing a security vulnerability in order to fix the issue at the point of introduction, and to help build awareness for the developer.
Note that as of February 7, 2026, the recentmost version that Winget can create a package for is 1.0.59 despite the existence of a v1.0.70, as binaries had not been officially prebuilt for versions past 1.0.59.
README
DevSkim
DevSkim is a framework of IDE extensions and language analyzers that provide inline security analysis
in the dev environment as the developer writes code. It has a flexible rule model that supports multiple programming
languages. The goal is to notify the developer as they are introducing a security
vulnerability in order to fix the issue at the point of introduction, and to help build awareness
for the developer.
Features
Built-in rules, and support for writing custom rules
Cross-platform CLI built on .NET for file analysis
IDE plugins for Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code built on Language Server Protocol
IntelliSense error "squiggly lines" for identified security issues
Information and guidance provided for identified security issues
Optional suppression of unwanted findings
Support for JSONPath, XPATH and YmlPath based rules
Broad language support including: C, C++, C#, Cobol, Go, Java, Javascript/Typescript, Python, and more.
Repository Structure
This repository contains DevSkim and its official supported plugins. Issues and contributions are accepted here for:
DevSkim is also available as a GitHub Action to integrate with the GitHub Security Issues pane.
Platform specific binaries of the DevSkim CLI are also available on our GitHub releases page.
Installation
Visual Studio Extension
The DevSkim Visual Studio extension can be downloaded and installed from the Visual Studio Marketplace.
Alternatively, in Visual Studio, open the Extension Manager (Menu: Extensions -> Manage Extensions), search for "Microsoft DevSkim", select the entry, and click on the Download button.
This will add DevSkim to your PATH. You can then invoke devskim from a command line.
.NET Core App (Self Contained)
Download the platform specific binary archive for your system (Windows, Mac OS, Linux) from the releases page. Extract the archive, navigate to the DevSkim folder from a command line, and invoke devskim or devskim.exe.
.NET Core Runtime Dependent App
First download and install the Latest .NET runtime.
Then download the DevSkim netcoreapp archive from the releases page. Extract the archive, navigate to the DevSkim folder from a command line, and invoke dotnet devskim.dll.
Build from Source
For more information, see the wiki page about how to Build from Source.
Visual Studio Extension / Visual Studio Code Plugin
Once the DevSkim plugin is installed and enabled, simply write some code, and feedback will be provided inline if issues are detected.
Writing Rules
Please see Writing Rules for
instructions on how to author rules.
Contributing
This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a
Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us
the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.opensource.microsoft.com.
When you submit a pull request, a CLA bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide
a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., status check, comment). Simply follow the instructions
provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.
