CodeQL Analysis Agent Skill

Scans a codebase for security vulnerabilities using CodeQL's interprocedural data flow and taint tracking analysis.

Context cost
26.9k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
16 files · 107.8 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
not declarednone named by its author
Last change
—no release on file
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Scans a codebase for security vulnerabilities using CodeQL's interprocedural data flow and taint tracking analysis. Triggers on "run codeql", "codeql scan", "codeql analysis", "build codeql database", or "find vulnerabilities with codeql". Supports "run all" (security-and-quality + security-experimental suites) and "important only" (high-precision security findings) scan modes. Also handles creating data extension models and processing CodeQL SARIF output.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

securitytesting

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md15.6 kB · preview
--- name: codeql allowed-tools: Bash Read Write Edit Glob Grep AskUserQuestion TaskCreate TaskList TaskUpdate TaskGet TodoRead TodoWrite ---
12# CodeQL Analysis
13
14Supported languages: Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, Java/Kotlin, C/C++, C#, Ruby, Swift.
15
16**Skill resources:** Reference files and templates are located at {baseDir}/references/ and {baseDir}/workflows/.
17
18## Essential Principles
19
201. **Database quality is non-negotiable.** A database that builds is not automatically good. Always run quality assessment (file counts, baseline LoC, extractor errors) and compare against expected source files. A cached build produces zero useful extraction.
21
222. **Data extensions catch what CodeQL misses.** Even projects using standard frameworks (Django, Spring, Express) have custom wrappers around database calls, request parsing, or shell execution. Skipping the create-data-extensions workflow means missing vulnerabilities in project-specific code paths.
23
243. **Explicit suite references prevent silent query dropping.** Never pass pack names directly to codeql database analyze — each pack's defaultSuiteFile applies hidden filters that can produce zero results. Always generate a custom .qls suite file.
25
264. **Zero findings needs investigation, not celebration.** Zero results can indicate poor database quality, missing models, wrong query packs, or silent suite filtering. Investigate before reporting clean.
27
285. **macOS Apple Silicon requires workarounds for compiled languages.** Exit code 137 is arm64e/arm64 mismatch, not a build failure. Try Homebrew arm64 tools or Rosetta before falling back to build-mode=none.
29
306. **Follow workflows step by step.** Once a workflow is selected, execute it step by step without skipping phases. Each phase gates the next — skipping quality assessment or data extensions leads to incomplete analysis.
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md2,061 words
Files16
Licencenot declared
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈160
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
26,790
on trigger
The instruction body and 15 supporting files, read only when the skill fires.
13.5%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would not fit in the window together.
050k100k150k200k context window

26.9k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

It asks the agent to write files, using whatever file access your client already has. Whether it reaches the network is not declared.

What it asks for
Writes filesyes
Network accessnot declared

Read from the allowed-tools line of this skill’s own SKILL.md. It also asks for Bash, which could do either, so what is not named there is not ruled out. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

16 files, 107.8 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md15.6 kB
  • references/build-fixes.md2.6 kB
  • references/diagnostic-query-templates.md10.0 kB
  • references/extension-yaml-format.md7.8 kB
  • references/important-only-suite.md5.8 kB
  • references/language-details.md5.1 kB
  • references/macos-arm64e-workaround.md6.8 kB
  • references/performance-tuning.md3.4 kB
  • references/quality-assessment.md7.0 kB
  • references/ruleset-catalog.md2.2 kB
  • references/run-all-suite.md4.3 kB
  • references/sarif-processing.md3.1 kB
  • references/threat-models.md3.1 kB
  • workflows/build-database.md9.6 kB
  • workflows/create-data-extensions.md9.9 kB
  • workflows/run-analysis.md11.5 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 16 files you can review in full before installing.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# CodeQL Analysis · 26.9k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/davidanthonyn-codeql-analysis/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/codeql-analysis" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/codeql-analysis ] || { mv .claude/skills/codeql-analysis "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/codeql-analysis" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/codeql-analysis"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add davidanthonyn/codeql-analysis

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/codeql-analysis/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/davidanthonyn-codeql-analysis/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/codeql-analysis" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/codeql-analysis ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/codeql-analysis "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/codeql-analysis" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/codeql-analysis" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/codeql-analysis/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where. It appears as codeql in Gemini CLI, Codex, Copilot and Grok (its own name); Claude Code lists it by the folder name, codeql-analysis.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Versionnot versioned
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencedavidanthonyn/codeql-analysis

Versions

Its author publishes no version number, so there is nothing here to pin to: what you install is the folder as it stands today. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

Pinning

Nothing to pin to: this skill carries no version number of its own. What you install is what the folder holds on the day you install it.

Reviews

—no reviews yet

Nobody has reviewed this skill yet. The rating is the mean of the reviews written here, so there is none until somebody writes the first.

Sign in to review it

A review is tied to an account so it can be answered, edited and taken down by the person who wrote it.

Sign in
Who can post

Anybody with an account, one review each. It carries the version that was current when you wrote it, and the publisher may reply once.

Publisher
Servers0
Claim this skill