Getting started with the Snyk CLI
Introduction to the Snyk CLI
Snyk is a developer-first, cloud-native security tool to scan and monitor your software development projects for security vulnerabilities. Snyk scans multiple content types for security issues:
- Snyk Open Source: Find and automatically fix open-source vulnerabilities
- Snyk Code: Find and fix vulnerabilities in your application code in real time
- Snyk Container: Find and fix vulnerabilities in container images and Kubernetes applications
- Snyk IaC: Find and fix insecure configurations in Terraform and Kubernetes code
The Snyk CLI brings the functionality of Snyk into your development workflow. You can run the CLI locally from the command line or in an IDE. You can also run the CLI in your CI/CD pipeline. The following shows an example of Snyk CLI test command output.
Snyk CLI scanning supports many languages and tools. For detailed information, see the following:
This page explains how to install, authenticate, and start scanning using the CLI. Snyk also has an onboarding wizard to guide you through these steps. For a demonstration, view Starting with Snyk: an overview of the CLI onboarding flow.
Install the Snyk CLI and authenticate your machine
To use the CLI, you must install it and authenticate your machine. See Install or update the Snyk CLI and Authenticate the CLI with your account. You can refer to the release notes for a summary of changes in each release. Before scanning your code, review the Code execution warning for Snyk CLI.
{% hint style="info" %}
Before you can use the CLI for Open Source scanning, you must install your package manager. The needed third-party tools, such as Gradle or Maven, must be in the PATH.
{% endhint %}
You can also install the CLI in your IDE or CI/CD environment. For details, see the IDE and CI/CD documentation for instructions for each integration.
Test your installation
After authenticating, you can test your installation. For a quick test, run snyk --help.
Alternatively, you can perform a quick test on a public npm package, for example snyk test ionic.
Look at the test command report in your terminal. The report shows the vulnerabilities Snyk found in the package. For each issue found, Snyk reports the severity of the issue, provides a link to a detailed description, reports the path through which the vulnerable module got into your system, and provides guidance on how to fix the problem.
Scan your development Project
Before using the Snyk CLI to test your Open Source Project for vulnerabilities, with limited exceptions, you must build your Project. For details, see Open Source Projects that must be built before testing.
In addition, depending on the language of your open-source Project, you may need to set up your language environment before using the Snyk CLI. For details, refer to Supported languages, package managers, and frameworks.
After you have installed the CLI and authenticated your machine, to scan an open-source Project, use cd /my/project/ to change the current directory to a folder containing a supported package manifest file, such as package.json, pom.xml, or composer.lock. Then run snyk test. All vulnerabilities identified are listed, including their path and fix guidance.
To scan your source code, run snyk code test.
You can scan a Docker image by its tag running, for example: snyk container test ubuntu:18.04.
To scan a Kubernetes (K8s) file, run the following:
snyk iac test /path/to/kubernetes_file.yaml
For details about using the Snyk CLI to scan each content type, see the following:
Scanning with an AI agent
If you are an AI coding agent, use agent mode: snyk agent test --experimental. It runs Open Source, Code, and Secrets scans in one pass and returns compact, token-efficient output built for agents. This command is experimental and subject to change. Run snyk agent --help for details.
Monitor your Open Source or Container Project
Snyk can monitor your Open Source or Container integrated SCM Project periodically and alert you to new vulnerabilities. To set up your Project to be monitored, run snyk monitor or snyk container monitor.
This creates a snapshot of your current dependencies so Snyk can regularly scan your code. Snyk can then alert you about newly disclosed vulnerabilities as they are introduced or when a previously unavailable patch or upgrade path is created. The following code shows an example of the output of the snyk monitor command.
> snyk monitor
Monitoring /project (project-name)...
Explore this snapshot at
https://app.snyk.io/org/my-org/project/29361c2c-9005-4692
-8df4-88f1c040fa7c/history/e1c994b3-de5d-482b-9281-eab4236c851e
Notifications about newly disclosed issues related to these
dependencies will be emailed to you.
You can log in to your Snyk account and navigate to the Projects page to find the latest snapshot and scan results:
For more information, see Monitor your Projects at regular intervals.
Running out of tests
Test limits do not apply to public repositories. If you notice that the test limits related to your private repositories (where applicable) are being used by tests on public repositories, you can remedy this by telling Snyk the public URL of the repository that is being scanned by the Snyk CLI. This ensures that Snyk does not count a public repository towards the test limits.
If you run out of tests on an open-source Project, follow these steps:
- Run
snyk monitor.
- In the Snyk Web UI, navigate to the Settings of the Project.
- Enter the URL of your open-source repository under Git remote URL.
Additional information about the Snyk CLI
Run snyk help or see the CLI commands and options summary.
See the course Introduction to the Snyk CLI for a quick video training session.
Snyk also provides a cheat sheet (blog post).
In particular, see the information about the following options that you may find useful:
--severity-threshold=low|medium|high|critical: Report only vulnerabilities of the specified level or higher.--json: Print results in JSON format.--all-projects: Auto-detect all Projects in the working directory.
For detailed information about the CLI, see the CLI documentation.
Getting support for the Snyk CLI
Use the resources on the Snyk support page to find help for using the Snyk CLI or Snyk in general. Note that Snyk support does not actively monitor GitHub Issues on any Snyk development project.
Snyk CLI is closed to contributions
Effective July 22, 2024, Snyk CLI no longer accepts external contributions.
Due to the CLI's extensive usage and intricate nature, even minor modifications can have unforeseen consequences. Since introducing release channels to the CLI code in April 2024, Snyk's focus has been on stabilizing releases. Snyk believes this open-source, closed-contribution model best serves this goal.
In the spirit of transparency to Snyk customers and CLI users, Snyk will continue working in public. However, going forward, Snyk CLI is closed to contributions.
Snyk appreciates and extends gratitude to the Snyk community.
Security
For any security issues or concerns, see the SECURITY.md file in the GitHub repository.
