Set code scanning merge protection

Secure your codebase by blocking pull requests that fail code scanning checks.

Who can use this feature?

Organization owners, security managers, and organization members with the admin role

Code scanning is available for the following repository types:

  • Public repositories on GitHub.com
  • Organization-owned repositories on GitHub Team, GitHub Enterprise Cloud, or GitHub Enterprise Server, with GitHub Code Security enabled.

In this article

Creating a merge protection ruleset for a repository

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.

  2. Under your repository name, click Settings. If you cannot see the "Settings" tab, select the dropdown menu, then click Settings.

    Screenshot of a repository header showing the tabs. The "Settings" tab is highlighted by a dark orange outline.

  3. In the left sidebar, under "Code and automation," click Rules, then click Rulesets.

    Screenshot of the sidebar of the "Settings" page for a repository. The "Rules" sub-menu is expanded, and the "Rulesets" option is outlined in orange.

  4. Click New ruleset.

  5. To create a ruleset targeting branches, click New branch ruleset.

  6. Under "Ruleset name," type a name for the ruleset.

  7. Optionally, to change the default enforcement status, click Disabled and select an enforcement status.

  8. Under "Branch protections", select Require code scanning results.

  9. Under "Required tools and alert thresholds", click Add tool and select a code scanning tool with the dropdown. For example, "CodeQL".

  10. Next to the name of a code scanning tool:

    • Click Alerts and select one of: None, Errors, Errors and Warnings or All.
    • Click Security alerts and select one of: None, Critical, High or higher, Medium or higher, or All.

    Screenshot of the "Required tools and alert thresholds" section of "Rulesets" settings.

For more information about alert severity and security severity levels, see About code scanning alerts.

For more information about managing rulesets in a repository, see Managing rulesets for a repository.

Creating a merge protection ruleset for all repositories in an organization

  1. In the upper-right corner of GitHub, click your profile picture, then click Organizations.

  2. Next to the organization, click Settings.

  3. In the left sidebar, in the "Code, planning, and automation" section, click Repository, then click Rulesets.

    Screenshot of an organization's settings page. In the sidebar, a link labeled "Rulesets" is outlined in orange.

  4. Click New ruleset.

  5. To create a ruleset targeting branches, click New branch ruleset.

  6. Under "Ruleset name," type a name for the ruleset.

  7. Optionally, to change the default enforcement status, click Disabled and select an enforcement status.

  8. Under "Branch protections", select Require code scanning results.

  9. Under "Required tools and alert thresholds", click Add tool and select a code scanning tool with the dropdown. For example, "CodeQL".

  10. Next to the name of a code scanning tool:

    • Click Alerts and select one of: None, Errors, Errors and Warnings or All.
    • Click Security alerts and select one of: None, Critical, High or higher, Medium or higher, or All.

    Screenshot of the "Required tools and alert thresholds" section of "Rulesets" settings.

For more information about alert severity and security severity levels, see About code scanning alerts.

For more information about managing rulesets for repositories in an organization, see Managing rulesets for repositories in your organization.

Creating a merge protection ruleset with the REST API

You can use the REST API to create a ruleset with the code_scanning rule, which allows you to define specific tools and set alert thresholds. For more information, see REST API endpoints for rules.