Sentinel API

Scan code for security vulnerabilities, secrets, and dependency issues via the Sentinel REST API, and auto-fix detected issues.

Authentication

All API calls require a Bearer token. Read the key from the SENTINEL_API_KEY environment variable:

curl https://sentinel.deepsource.com/api/v1/workspace \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENTINEL_API_KEY"

If the key is not set, ask the user to provide it. Never hardcode API keys or pass them as command-line arguments. All bundled scripts read from this environment variable automatically.

Workflow

Step 1: Create a repository

curl -X POST https://sentinel.deepsource.com/api/v1/repositories \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENTINEL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "my-repo",
    "external_id": "local:my-repo",
    "detection": ["security", "secrets"],
    "fix": ["security", "secrets"]
  }'

Save the returned id (e.g., repo_...). Use external_id to avoid duplicates — if a repo with the same external_id exists, retrieve it with GET /repositories/external:local:my-repo instead.

Step 2: Sync code

Use the bundled scripts/sync_repo.sh script:

# Full sync (first time)
./scripts/sync_repo.sh /path/to/repo <repo_id>

# Incremental sync (subsequent updates)
./scripts/sync_repo.sh /path/to/repo <repo_id> <base_ref>

The script creates a git bundle, obtains a signed upload URL, uploads the bundle, and polls until sync completes. It outputs the sync ID on success.

Manual sync steps (if not using the script):

Create a git bundle:

# Full
git bundle create repo.bundle --all
# Incremental from a base ref
git bundle create repo.bundle <base_ref>..HEAD

Create a sync: POST /repositories/{id}/syncs with {"type": "full"} or {"type": "incremental", "base_ref": "<ref>"}

Upload the bundle to the upload_url from the response:

curl -X PUT "<upload_url>" -H "Content-Type: application/octet-stream" --data-binary @repo.bundle

Poll GET /repositories/{id}/syncs/{sync_id} until status is completed.

Step 3: Run analysis

curl -X POST https://sentinel.deepsource.com/api/v1/analysis \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENTINEL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "repository",
    "repository_id": "<repo_id>",
    "from_ref": "<commit_sha>"
  }'

from_ref (required): the git commit/ref to analyze from. Use the full SHA of HEAD for a full scan.
to_ref (optional): end ref for analyzing a range of changes.
patch (optional): git patch to apply before analysis. Mutually exclusive with to_ref.

Step 4: Poll for results

Use the bundled scripts/poll_analysis.sh script:

RESULT=$(./scripts/poll_analysis.sh <analysis_id>)

Or poll manually: GET /analysis/{id} until status is completed.

Step 5: Inspect results and apply fixes

The completed analysis contains:

detection_result.issues — list of detected issues with file, position, explanation, category
fix_result.patch — unified diff patch that fixes the detected issues
fix_result.fixes — individual fixes with explanations

Apply the fix patch:

echo "$FIX_PATCH" | git apply

If only the first 50 issues/fixes are returned (has_more: true), paginate with:

GET /analysis/{id}/issues?limit=100
GET /analysis/{id}/fixes?limit=100

Detection Categories

Category	Description
`security`	Code vulnerabilities (injection, XSS, unsafe deserialization, etc.)
`secrets`	Leaked credentials, API keys, tokens in source code
`dependencies`	Vulnerable dependencies

Default detection: ["security", "secrets"]. Set per-repository or per-analysis.

Key Patterns

Reuse repositories: Look up existing repos by external_id (GET /repositories/external:<external_id>) before creating new ones.

Incremental syncs: After the first full sync, use incremental syncs with base_ref set to the last synced commit for faster uploads.

Idempotency: Send Idempotency-Key header on create operations for safe retries.

Ref for full scan: To scan the entire repo, set from_ref to the root commit or the HEAD commit SHA after syncing.

API Reference

For detailed endpoint documentation, request/response schemas, pagination, and error codes, see references/api-reference.md.

sentinel-api