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Coverity Metrics

A Python-based project to generate comprehensive metrics from Coverity's PostgreSQL database.

Overview

This tool analyzes Coverity static analysis data stored in PostgreSQL and generates various metrics to help you understand code quality, defect trends, and development team activity.

Quick Start:

# Install
pip install -e .

# Configure
cp config.json.example config.json
# Edit config.json with your database credentials

# Generate interactive dashboard (CLI entry point)
coverity-dashboard

# Or run as a Python module
python -m coverity_metrics dashboard

# View technical debt and security metrics
# Check the "Trends & Progress" tab for technical debt estimation
# Check the "OWASP Top 10" and "CWE Top 25" tabs (project-level) for security
# Check the "Leaderboards" tab for team performance rankings

What You Get:

  • 📊 Interactive HTML dashboards with Plotly visualizations
  • ⏱️ Real-time progress tracking with ETA for long-running operations
  • 💰 Technical debt estimation (estimated hours/days to remediate)
  • 📅 Commit activity patterns (busiest/quietest times and days)
  • 🔒 OWASP Top 10 2025 security compliance mapping
  • 🛡️ CWE Top 25 2025 dangerous weakness tracking
  • 🏆 Team and project leaderboards for gamification
  • 📈 Defect velocity and trend analysis
  • 🎯 File hotspots and complexity metrics
  • 👥 User activity and triage progress

Features

What's New: See CHANGELOG.md for the full per-version changelog and RELEASE_NOTES.md for the narrative release notes. Recent releases are also listed on the GitHub Releases page.


The tool provides the following metric categories:

1. Defect Metrics

  • Total Defects by Project: Count of defects grouped by project with active/fixed breakdown
  • Defects by Severity: Distribution across High/Medium/Low impact levels
  • Defects by Category: Top defect categories (e.g., Security, Null pointer, Resource leak)
  • Defects by Checker: Specific checkers finding the most defects
  • Defect Density: Defects per 1000 lines of code (KLOC) by project/stream
  • File Hotspots: Files with the highest concentration of defects

2. Triage Metrics

  • Defects by Triage Status: Distribution by action (Fix Required, Ignore, etc.)
  • Defects by Classification: Bug, False Positive, Intentional, etc.
  • Defects by Owner: Defect ownership and assignment statistics

3. Code Quality Metrics

  • Code Metrics by Stream: Lines of code, comment ratios, file counts
  • Function Complexity: Distribution of cyclomatic complexity
  • Most Complex Functions: Identify high-complexity functions needing refactoring
  • Comment Ratio: Code documentation percentage

4. Trend Metrics

  • Weekly Defect Trend: Defect count trends over time
  • Weekly File Count Trend: Codebase growth tracking
  • Snapshot History: Analysis run history with defect changes
  • Defect Velocity Trends: Introduction vs fix rates over time
  • Cumulative Trend Analysis: Long-term defect accumulation patterns
  • Technical Debt Estimation: Hours/days/weeks to remediate all defects
    • Based on defect impact levels (High=4h, Medium=2h, Low=1h, Unspecified=0.5h)
    • Breakdown by severity with visual indicators
    • Total person-weeks capacity needed

5. User Activity Metrics

  • Login Statistics: User engagement with the system
  • Active Triagers: Most active users in defect triage
  • Session Analytics: Average session duration per user

6. Security Compliance Metrics (ENHANCED!)

  • OWASP Top 10 2025: Complete security posture visibility
    • All 10 categories displayed with PASS/FAILED status badges
    • 🟢 PASS (green badge): No defects for this category
    • 🔴 FAILED (red badge): Has defects requiring attention (clickable to expand)
    • CWE-based mapping to 10 critical web application security risks
    • Click FAILED categories to see ALL defects with CID, Type, Severity, File, Function
    • Summary metrics showing "X/10 Failed" counts
    • Visual differentiation: FAILED rows (red-tinted, clickable) vs PASS rows (green-tinted, faded)
    • Project-level security dashboards
  • CWE Top 25 2025: Complete weakness coverage
    • All 25 CWE entries displayed with Status column and PASS/FAILED badges
    • Track MITRE's Most Dangerous Software Weaknesses
    • 25 ranked weaknesses based on real-world vulnerability data from NVD
    • Click FAILED entries to see complete defect lists
    • Industry-standard danger scores and rankings (1-25)
    • Helps prioritize remediation by recognized danger levels
    • Summary metrics showing "X/25 Failed" counts

7. Competitive Leaderboards (NEW!)

  • Top Projects by Fix Rate: Projects ranked by defect elimination velocity
  • Top Projects by Triage Activity: Most active triage engagement
  • Top Fixers (Users): Developers who eliminated the most defects
  • Top Triagers (Users): Most active users in defect classification
  • Most Collaborative Users: Users working across multiple projects

8. Performance Metrics

  • Database Statistics: Database size and growth tracking
  • Commit Performance: Analysis duration (min/max/average times)
  • Commit Activity Patterns: Busiest/quietest times (3-hour blocks) and days for commits
    • Temporal analysis of when commits occur (hour-by-hour, day-by-day)
    • Identifies peak development hours and quiet periods
    • Statistics: commit counts, average duration, files changed, defects introduced
    • Helps optimize team schedules and CI/CD resource allocation
  • Snapshot Performance: Recent commit performance with queue times
  • Defect Discovery Rate: Daily/weekly defect discovery trends
  • System Analytics: Largest tables, resource utilization

9. Summary Metrics

  • Overall counts: projects, streams, defects, files, functions, LOC
  • High severity defect counts
  • Active user counts

Installation

From PyPI (Recommended)

pip install coverity-metrics

This installs the CLI commands (coverity-dashboard, coverity-metrics, coverity-export) and enables running as a Python module (python -m coverity_metrics).

No admin or root rights? Use pip install --user coverity-metrics or pipx install coverity-metrics — no privileges required. See INSTALL.md for details.

From Source

# Clone or download this repository
git clone https://github.com/lejouni/coverity_metrics.git
cd coverity_metrics

# Install the package with all dependencies
pip install -e .

Editable mode is useful when you want to modify the source.

Requirements

  • Python >= 3.10 (required by pandas >=3.0 and matplotlib >=3.10)

The package includes these dependencies (automatically installed):

  • psycopg2-binary - PostgreSQL database adapter
  • pandas - Data analysis and manipulation
  • matplotlib - Plotting library
  • seaborn - Statistical data visualization
  • python-dateutil - Date/time utilities
  • openpyxl - Excel file support (pandas dependency)
  • jinja2 - HTML template engine for dashboard generation
  • plotly - Interactive charts and visualizations
  • tqdm - Progress bars

Configuration

The tool requires configuration through config.json. Create this file with your Coverity instance(s) connection details:

cp config.json.example config.json
# Edit config.json with your database credentials

Configuration File Format

{
  "instances": [
    {
      "name": "Production",
      "description": "Production Coverity Instance",
      "enabled": true,
      "database": {
        "host": "coverity-server.company.com",
        "port": 5432,
        "database": "cim",
        "user": "coverity_ro",
        "password": "your_password_here"
      },
      "color": "#2c3e50"
    }
  ]
}

Important:

  • Add at least one instance with "enabled": true
  • For single-instance mode: Configure one instance
  • For multi-instance mode: Configure 2+ instances (auto-detected)
  • Add config.json to .gitignore to protect credentials

Configuring coverity-export / coverity-dashboard from environment variables

Both coverity-export and coverity-dashboard (in database mode) can also be run against a single instance without a config.json, by providing the connection details through environment variables. This is convenient in CI pipelines and containers where you'd rather not ship a config file. No extra flag is needed — just set the variables and omit --config.

Even simpler for end users — pre-built quickstart scripts under scripts/ (coverity-export.sh for Linux, coverity-export.ps1 for Windows) download the standalone binary for the latest (or a pinned) GitHub release, set these variables from a block you edit at the top of the script, and run coverity-metrics export in one shot. They forward --tag, --output, --days, --project, --anonymize, --no-snapshots, and --no-leaderboards.

For coverity-dashboard, the env-var check only applies to database mode; when --zip-file is given the tool reads from the ZIP and does not need a config or env vars.

Variable Required Default Description
COVERITY_DB_HOST yes — Hostname of the Coverity Postgres database
COVERITY_DB_NAME yes — Database name (e.g. cim)
COVERITY_DB_USER yes — Database user
COVERITY_DB_PASSWORD yes — Database password
COVERITY_DB_PORT no 5432 Database port
COVERITY_INSTANCE_NAME no Coverity Instance name used in the ZIP filename / dashboard label

Precedence used at startup (both tools):

  1. --config <file> explicitly passed — load that JSON (fails if the file is missing). Multi-instance is supported here.
  2. All required env vars set — single-instance env-var mode with an [INFO] message.
  3. A config.json in the current directory — loaded automatically (backward compatible).
  4. None of the above — the tool exits with a clear error listing both options.

Example (PowerShell):

$env:COVERITY_DB_HOST     = "coverity-prod.company.com"
$env:COVERITY_DB_NAME     = "cim"
$env:COVERITY_DB_USER     = "coverity_ro"
$env:COVERITY_DB_PASSWORD = "***"
$env:COVERITY_INSTANCE_NAME = "Production"
coverity-export    --output exports --days 365
coverity-dashboard --output output  --days 365 --no-browser

Example (bash):

export COVERITY_DB_HOST=coverity-prod.company.com
export COVERITY_DB_NAME=cim
export COVERITY_DB_USER=coverity_ro
export COVERITY_DB_PASSWORD=***
export COVERITY_INSTANCE_NAME=Production
coverity-export    --output exports --days 365
coverity-dashboard --output output  --days 365 --no-browser

coverity-metrics still requires config.json; env-var mode is currently coverity-export and coverity-dashboard–only.

Database Schema

The tool works with the following key Coverity database tables:

  • defect, stream_defect, defect_instance - Defect information
  • checker, checker_properties - Checker and severity data (includes CWE codes)
  • triage_state, defect_triage - Triage information
  • stream, stream_file, stream_function - Code structure
  • snapshot, snapshot_element - Analysis snapshots and defect lifecycle
  • project, project_stream - Project organization
  • users, user_login - User activity
  • weekly_issue_count, weekly_file_count - Trend data
  • dynamic_enum - Classification, action, and severity enumerations

NEW - Security Metrics Support:

  • checker_properties.cwe - CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) codes used for OWASP Top 10 and CWE Top 25 mapping
  • dynamic_enum - Severity values (Major, Moderate, Minor, Unspecified) mapped to security risk levels

Usage

After installation, you can use the package in two ways: Command-Line Interface (CLI) or Python Library.

Command-Line Interface (CLI)

The package provides three CLI commands for different use cases, each also available as a python -m coverity_metrics <subcommand>:

Command Module equivalent Purpose Output Data Source Best For
coverity-dashboard python -m coverity_metrics dashboard Visual HTML dashboard Interactive HTML files with charts Database or ZIP file Presentations, visual analysis, sharing
coverity-metrics python -m coverity_metrics report Console text report Terminal output (stdout) Database only Quick checks, CI/CD, piping
coverity-export python -m coverity_metrics export Data export ZIP file with JSON Database only Offline dashboards, data delivery, archiving

Key Differences:

  • coverity-dashboard: Creates beautiful interactive HTML dashboards with Plotly charts, saved to output/ directory. Can read from database OR exported ZIP files for offline use. Auto-opens in browser for easy viewing. Supports multi-instance aggregation.

  • coverity-metrics: Prints all metrics as formatted text tables directly to your terminal. No files created. Great for quick command-line checks or redirecting to log files (coverity-metrics > report.txt).

  • coverity-export: NEW! Exports all metrics to ZIP files. When multiple instances are configured in config.json, a separate ZIP file is created for each instance. The ZIP files can be transferred (email, file share) and used to generate dashboards offline without database access.

Offline Dashboard Workflow:

The new ZIP export/import feature enables dashboard generation without database access:

# 1. Export data from database (on machine with database access)
coverity-export --output exports --days 365 --config config.json

# With SINGLE instance in config.json:
# Creates: exports/coverity_export_Production_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip

# With MULTIPLE instances in config.json:
# Creates: exports/coverity_export_Production_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip
#          exports/coverity_export_Development_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip
#          exports/coverity_export_Staging_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip
# (one ZIP file per instance)

# 2. Transfer ZIP file(s) (email, USB, file share, etc.)
#    Each ZIP file is self-contained with all metrics for that instance

# 3. Generate dashboards offline (on any machine, no database needed!)
coverity-dashboard --zip-file coverity_export_Production_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip

# Filter by project:
coverity-dashboard --zip-file export.zip --project MyProject

# Filter by instance (when ZIP contains multiple instances):
coverity-dashboard --zip-file export.zip --instance Production

Multi-ZIP Aggregation:

NEW! You can combine multiple ZIP files to create an aggregated view. This is useful when:

  • Instances are exported at different times
  • Instances are on different networks
  • You want to combine exports from different sources
# If you have separate ZIP files (from separate exports or from multi-instance export):
coverity-dashboard --zip-file exports/*.zip

# Or explicitly list them:
coverity-dashboard --zip-file \
  coverity_export_Production_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip \
  coverity_export_Development_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip \
  coverity_export_Staging_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip

# This generates:
#   - Aggregated dashboard combining all instances (dashboard_aggregated.html)
#   - Per-instance dashboards for each ZIP (Production, Development, Staging)
#   - Per-project dashboards for all projects in all instances

Use Cases for Multi-ZIP Aggregation:

  • Different Networks: Export from prod/dev instances on isolated networks, combine on analysis machine
  • Different Time Zones: Collect exports from global teams and merge
  • Staggered Exports: Don't wait for all instances - export when ready, aggregate later
  • Air-Gapped Delivery: Transfer multiple ZIP files via USB/file share, combine offline
  • Historical Comparison: Merge current exports with archived historical snapshots

Benefits:

  • Share metrics with stakeholders without database credentials
  • Generate dashboards on air-gapped networks
  • Archive historical metrics snapshots
  • Reduce database load by using cached exports
  • Easy delivery of reports to management
  • NEW: Flexible multi-instance aggregation without simultaneous database access

1. Generate Dashboard (Main Tool)

Data Sources:

  • Database Mode: Direct PostgreSQL connection (requires config.json)
  • ZIP File Mode: Exported ZIP file (no database needed)
# ========== DATABASE MODE ==========
# Basic usage - auto-detects instance type from config.json
coverity-dashboard

# Filter by specific project across all instances
coverity-dashboard --project "MyProject"

# Filter by multiple projects (comma-separated)
coverity-dashboard --project "AppA,AppB,AppC"

# Generate for specific instance only
coverity-dashboard --instance Production

# Change trend analysis period (default: 365 days)
coverity-dashboard --days 180

# Custom output folder
coverity-dashboard --output reports/2026

# Enable caching for better performance
coverity-dashboard --cache --cache-ttl 86400

# Generate without opening browser
coverity-dashboard --no-browser  

# Use different configuration file
coverity-dashboard --config my-config.json

# ========== ZIP FILE MODE (OFFLINE) ==========
# Generate from exported ZIP file (no database required!)
coverity-dashboard --zip-file exports/coverity_export_Production_20260224_120000.zip

# ZIP mode with project filter (single or multiple)
coverity-dashboard --zip-file exports/coverity_export_Production_20260224_120000.zip --project MyProject
coverity-dashboard --zip-file exports/coverity_export_Production_20260224_120000.zip --project "AppA,AppB"

# ZIP mode with instance filter (single ZIP only)
coverity-dashboard --zip-file exports/coverity_export_Prod_Dev_20260224_120000.zip --instance Production

# ZIP mode with custom output
coverity-dashboard --zip-file export.zip --output offline_reports --no-browser

# ========== MULTI-ZIP AGGREGATION (NEW!) ==========
# Combine multiple ZIP files from different instances
coverity-dashboard --zip-file prod_export.zip dev_export.zip staging_export.zip

# Multi-ZIP with project filter (searches across all instances)
coverity-dashboard --zip-file file1.zip file2.zip file3.zip --project MyApp

# Multi-ZIP with wildcard
coverity-dashboard --zip-file exports/*.zip --no-browser

Auto-Detection Behavior (Database Mode):

  • config.json is required with at least one enabled instance configured
  • If config.json has 2+ enabled instances: Multi-instance mode (generates aggregated + per-instance + per-project dashboards)
  • If config.json has 1 enabled instance: Single-instance mode (generates dashboard for that instance)
  • Use --project to filter by one or more projects (comma-separated: --project "AppA,AppB")
  • Use --instance to generate for specific instance only (multi-instance mode)
  • Use --single-instance-mode to force single-instance behavior even with multiple instances

ZIP File Mode Behavior:

  • Automatically uses ZIP as data source when --zip-file is specified
  • No config.json needed
  • Auto-selects first instance in ZIP if not specified
  • Use --instance to select specific instance from ZIP
  • Use --project to filter by one or more projects, comma-separated (same as database mode)

CLI Parameters Reference

coverity-dashboard Parameters

Parameter Short Type Default Description
--project -p string None Filter metrics by project name(s). Use comma-separated values for multiple projects (e.g. AppA,AppB,AppC). Multiple projects generate per-project dashboards plus an aggregated instance dashboard
--output -o string output Output folder path for dashboard files
--no-browser - flag False Do not open dashboard in browser automatically
--workers -w integer 1 NEW! Number of parallel workers for per-project dashboard generation. Clamped to 1–8. In database mode each worker uses its own Postgres connection; in ZIP mode each worker uses its own ZipDataLoader
--zip-file -z string(s) None Use exported ZIP file(s) as data source instead of database. Supports multiple files for multi-instance aggregation
--config -c string config.json Path to configuration file (not needed for ZIP mode)
--instance -i string None Generate dashboard for specific instance only
--single-instance-mode - flag False Force single-instance mode even with multiple instances in config
--cache - flag False Enable caching to speed up subsequent generations (database mode only)
--cache-dir - string cache Directory for cache files
--cache-ttl - integer 24 Cache time-to-live in hours
--clear-cache - flag False Clear all cached data before generating
--cache-stats - flag False Display cache statistics and exit
--no-cache - flag False Force refresh data from database, bypass cache
--days -d integer 365 Number of days for trend analysis
--track-progress - flag False Enable progress tracking for large operations
--resume - string None Resume from interrupted session (provide session ID)
--version - flag False Print version and exit

Examples:

# Basic dashboard with caching
coverity-dashboard --cache

# Filter by project with 180-day trends
coverity-dashboard --project "MyApp" --days 180

# Generate without browser, custom output
coverity-dashboard --no-browser --output reports/weekly

# Parallelize per-project dashboard generation (NEW in 1.0.17)
coverity-dashboard --workers 4                          # 4 workers, database mode
coverity-dashboard --workers 4 --zip-file export.zip    # 4 workers, ZIP mode

# Clear cache and regenerate
coverity-dashboard --clear-cache --no-cache

# View cache statistics
coverity-dashboard --cache-stats

coverity-metrics Parameters

Parameter Short Type Default Description
--zip-file -z string(s) None Read metrics from exported ZIP file(s) instead of database
--config -c string config.json Path to configuration file (default: config.json)
--version - flag False Print version and exit

The tool:

  • Automatically uses the first enabled instance from config.json when no --zip-file is given
  • Prints formatted tables directly to stdout
  • Can be redirected to files: coverity-metrics > report.txt

coverity-export Parameters

NEW! Exports all metrics to ZIP files. Creates a separate ZIP file for each configured instance.

Parameter Short Type Default Description
--output -o string exports Output directory for ZIP files
--days -d integer 365 Number of days for trend analysis
--config -c string config.json Path to configuration file
--project -p string None Comma-separated list of project names to export (default: all projects)
--workers -w integer 1 NEW! Number of parallel workers for per-project export. Clamped to 1–8. Each worker uses its own Postgres connection. Recommended: --workers 4 for large deployments (645+ projects)
--anonymize - flag False NEW in 1.0.19! Replace real project and stream names in the ZIP with sequential project_NNN / stream_NNN ids and write a sibling <zip>.mapping.json file that maps the ids back to real names. See Sharing exports without disclosing project names below
--mapping-file - string None Path to an anonymization mapping JSON. If it exists, it is loaded so ids stay stable across re-exports; the (possibly extended) mapping is written back to the same path. Only used with --anonymize
--no-leaderboards - flag False NEW in 1.0.19! Skip the five Leaderboards metrics (top_projects_by_fix_rate, top_projects_by_triage_activity, top_users_by_fixes, top_triagers, most_collaborative_users). Dashboards generated from the resulting ZIP automatically hide the 🏆 Leaderboards tab
--no-snapshots - flag False NEW in 1.0.19! Skip the snapshot_commands metric (recorded cov-build/cov-analyze command lines, invoker, host, platform). Project dashboards generated from the resulting ZIP automatically hide the 📸 Snapshots tab
--version - flag False Print version and exit

The tool:

  • Creates a separate ZIP file for each enabled instance from config.json
  • Each ZIP file is named: {output}/coverity_export_{InstanceName}_{YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS}.zip
  • Each ZIP contains JSON files with all metrics for that instance
  • Includes metadata.json with export info, instance name, and project list
  • ZIP files are self-contained and can be used for offline dashboard generation
  • Multiple ZIP files can be combined using coverity-dashboard --zip-file file1.zip file2.zip ...

Examples:

# Basic export (365 days, all instances)
coverity-export
# Single instance: exports/coverity_export_Production_20260224_120000.zip
# Multiple instances: exports/coverity_export_Production_20260224_120000.zip
#                     exports/coverity_export_Development_20260224_120000.zip
#                     exports/coverity_export_Staging_20260224_120000.zip

# Custom trend period and output location
coverity-export --output archive --days 90
# Output: archive/coverity_export_{InstanceName}_20260224_120000.zip (one per instance)

# Use custom config file
coverity-export --config my-config.json --days 180

# Parallelize per-project export for large deployments (NEW in 1.0.17)
coverity-export --workers 4
# 4 workers → ~4× faster on 645-project instances vs. sequential.
# Each worker keeps its own Postgres connection; cap is 8.
Sharing exports without disclosing project names

New in 1.0.19. If you want to send a Coverity export to someone outside your organization (a consultant, an auditor, a support engineer) but the real project and stream names are sensitive, add --anonymize:

coverity-export --anonymize
# → exports/coverity_export_Production_20260805_130613.zip           (safe to share)
# → exports/coverity_export_Production_20260805_130613.mapping.json  (keep private)

Inside the ZIP, every real project name is replaced with project_001, project_002, … and every real stream name with stream_001, stream_002, … — in the directory layout, in metadata.json, and in every project_name / stream_name column of every exported JSON. The sibling .mapping.json file lists the mapping so you can decode it later; the ZIP alone cannot be reverse-mapped.

To keep ids stable across re-exports (so project_001 always means the same real project), point --mapping-file at a persistent path:

coverity-export --anonymize --mapping-file .\anon-map.json
# First run creates .\anon-map.json.
# Later runs load it, assign next-available ids to any new projects, and save back.

*.mapping.json is included in .gitignore so it won't be committed accidentally. Instance names, host, database, and user/committer names are not anonymized in this release; only project and stream names are.


2. Console Metrics Report

Outputs: Text tables printed to terminal (no files created)

# Generate console metrics report
coverity-metrics

# Redirect to file
coverity-metrics > daily-report.txt

# Redirect with timestamp
coverity-metrics > "report-$(date +%Y%m%d).txt"

Use Cases:

  • Quick command-line checks
  • Automated CI/CD pipelines
  • SSH sessions without GUI
  • Piping to log files or other tools

Note: Supports --zip-file, --config, and --version. To filter by project or instance, modify config.json before running.

3. Export to ZIP (NEW!)

Outputs: Single ZIP file containing all metrics for all instances in JSON format

# Basic export
coverity-export

# Custom output directory and trend period
coverity-export --output monthly_archives --days 30

# Export for long-term analysis
coverity-export --days 730 --output historical

What Gets Exported:

The ZIP file contains:

  • All Metrics (JSON): Defects, trends, hotspots, code metrics, performance stats, activity patterns
  • Project-Specific Data: OWASP Top 10 and CWE Top 25 metrics per project
  • Metadata (JSON): Export timestamp, instance names, project lists, configuration snapshot

ZIP File Structure:

Each instance gets its own ZIP file with the following structure:

coverity_export_Production_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip
├── metadata.json                    # Export metadata (timestamp, instance info, etc.)
└── Production/                      # Instance folder
    ├── overall_summary.json         # Instance-level metrics
    ├── defects_by_project.json
    ├── defects_by_severity.json
    ├── technical_debt_summary.json
    ├── ... (other instance metrics)
    ├── MyProject/                   # Project-specific folder
    │   ├── owasp_top10_metrics.json
    │   ├── cwe_top25_metrics.json
    │   ├── owasp_A01_details.json
    │   └── cwe_79_details.json
    └── AnotherProject/              # Another project folder
        └── ... (project metrics)

When multiple instances are configured, you get multiple ZIP files:

exports/
├── coverity_export_Production_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip
├── coverity_export_Development_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip
└── coverity_export_Staging_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip

Use Cases:

  • Offline dashboard generation (no database access needed)
  • Sharing metrics with stakeholders without credentials
  • Historical snapshots and archiving
  • Air-gapped network deployments
  • Reducing database load with cached exports
  • Selective instance sharing (send only specific instance ZIPs)

Typical Workflow

Daily Quick Check:

# Fast terminal check
coverity-metrics

Weekly Team Review:

# Generate visual dashboard for presentation
coverity-dashboard --cache
# Opens interactive HTML in browser

Monthly Executive Report:

# Visual dashboard
coverity-dashboard --days 90 --cache

# Export data for custom Excel charts
coverity-export

Offline Dashboard Delivery (NEW!):

# SINGLE INSTANCE:
# On machine with database access:
coverity-export --days 365 --output deliverables

# Transfer ZIP file (email, file share, USB):
# deliverables/coverity_export_Production_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip

# On stakeholder's machine (no database access):
coverity-dashboard --zip-file coverity_export_Production_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip

# Result: Full interactive dashboards without database!

# MULTI-INSTANCE AGGREGATION:
# Export from each instance separately:
# Instance A: coverity-export --output exports_prod
# Instance B: coverity-export --output exports_dev
# Instance C: coverity-export --output exports_staging

# Transfer all ZIP files, then aggregate:
coverity-dashboard --zip-file exports_prod/*.zip exports_dev/*.zip exports_staging/*.zip

# Result: Combined dashboards from all instances offline!

Complete Analysis Workflow:

# 1. Quick overview in terminal
coverity-metrics

# 2. Generate interactive dashboard
coverity-dashboard --cache --no-browser

# 3. Export for offline delivery
coverity-export --days 365

# Now you have:
# - Console output for quick reference
# - HTML dashboards (output/dashboard.html) for presentations
# - ZIP file (exports/*.zip) for offline dashboards and archiving

Python Library Usage

You can also use the package programmatically in your Python code:

from coverity_metrics import CoverityMetrics, MultiInstanceMetrics, InstanceConfig

# Single instance usage
metrics = CoverityMetrics(
    connection_params={
        'host': 'localhost',
        'port': 5432,
        'database': 'coverity',
        'user': 'postgres',
        'password': 'your_password'
    },
    project_name='MyProject'  # Optional project filter
)

# Get metrics with default limits (top N results)
top_categories = metrics.get_defects_by_checker_category(limit=10)  # Top 10
file_hotspots = metrics.get_file_hotspots(limit=20)  # Top 20

# Get ALL data using fetch_all parameter
all_categories = metrics.get_defects_by_checker_category(fetch_all=True)  # All categories
all_hotspots = metrics.get_file_hotspots(fetch_all=True)  # All files with defects
all_snapshots = metrics.get_snapshot_history(fetch_all=True)  # All snapshot history

# NEW! Technical Debt Estimation
tech_debt = metrics.get_technical_debt_summary()
print(f"Total effort: {tech_debt['total_hours']} hours ({tech_debt['total_days']} days)")
print(f"High impact: {tech_debt['breakdown']['High']['hours']} hours")

# NEW! Security Compliance Metrics
owasp_metrics = metrics.get_owasp_top10_metrics()  # OWASP Top 10 2025
cwe_metrics = metrics.get_cwe_top25_metrics()      # CWE Top 25 2025

# NEW! Leaderboard Metrics
top_fixers = metrics.get_top_users_by_fixes(days=30, limit=10)
top_projects = metrics.get_top_projects_by_fix_rate(days=30, limit=10)
improved_projects = metrics.get_most_improved_projects(days=90, limit=10)

# Other methods with fetch_all support:
# - get_defects_by_checker_name(limit=20, fetch_all=False)
# - get_defects_by_owner(limit=20, fetch_all=False)
# - get_most_complex_functions(limit=20, fetch_all=False)

# Multi-instance usage
instances = [
    InstanceConfig("Production", {...connection_params...}),
    InstanceConfig("Development", {...connection_params...})
]

multi = MultiInstanceMetrics(instances)
aggregated = multi.get_aggregated_metrics()

See INSTALL.md for detailed API examples.

Dashboard Features

  • Project Filtering: View metrics for all projects or filter by specific project
  • Project Navigation: Easy navigation between project-specific dashboards
  • Tabbed Interface: Organized into multiple specialized views:
    • Overview: Summary metrics, defect distribution, severity analysis
    • Code Quality: Complexity metrics, hotspots, code coverage
    • Performance & Analytics: Database stats, commit performance
    • Trends & Progress: Velocity trends, triage progress, technical debt estimation
    • Leaderboards: 🏆 Competitive rankings (projects, users, fixers, triagers)
    • OWASP Top 10: 🔒 Security compliance (project-level only)
    • CWE Top 25: 🛡️ Dangerous weakness tracking (project-level only)
  • Summary cards with key metrics and visual indicators
  • Interactive Plotly charts for severity distribution, project comparison
  • File hotspots with detailed tables and defects per KLOC
  • Code quality metrics visualization
  • Function complexity distribution
  • Top defect checkers and categories
  • Technical Debt Metrics (NEW!):
    • Total estimated hours/days/weeks to fix all defects
    • Breakdown by impact level (High/Medium/Low/Unspecified)
    • Industry-standard effort estimates per severity
    • Visual cards with color-coded severity indicators
  • Security Compliance (NEW!):
    • OWASP Top 10 2025 categories with CWE mappings
    • CWE Top 25 2025 most dangerous weaknesses
    • Severity breakdown per category/weakness
    • Project-level security dashboards only
  • Leaderboard Rankings (NEW!):
    • Top 10 projects by fix velocity, improvement, triage activity
    • Top 10 users by actual fixes (code eliminations)
    • Top 10 triagers by classification activity
    • Most collaborative users across projects
  • Performance metrics:
    • Database size and statistics
    • Commit/analysis performance (min/max/average times)
    • Recent snapshot performance with queue times
    • Defect discovery rate trends
    • Largest database tables
  • Responsive design for mobile/tablet viewing
  • Print-friendly layout

Dashboard Files Generated:

  • output/dashboard.html - Global view of all projects
  • output/dashboard_{ProjectName}.html - Project-specific dashboards

Multi-Instance Support

For environments with multiple Coverity instances, the tool now auto-detects your configuration:

Configure multiple Coverity instances in config.json:

{
  "instances": [
    {
      "name": "Production",
      "description": "Production Coverity Instance",
      "enabled": true,
      "database": {
        "host": "coverity-prod.company.com",
        "port": 5432,
        "database": "cim",
        "user": "coverity_ro",
        "password": "your_password"
      },
      "color": "#2c3e50"
    },
    {
      "name": "Development",
      "description": "Development Coverity Instance",
      "enabled": true,
      "database": {
        "host": "coverity-dev.company.com",
        "port": 5432,
        "database": "cim",
        "user": "coverity_ro",
        "password": "your_password"
      },
      "color": "#3498db"
    }
  ],
  "aggregated_view": {
    "enabled": true,
    "name": "All Instances"
  }
}

Simplified Multi-Instance Commands:

# Generate everything - automatically creates:
#   - Aggregated dashboard across all instances
#   - Individual dashboard for each instance
#   - Project dashboards for all projects in each instance
coverity-dashboard

# Filter by specific project across all instances
coverity-dashboard --project MyApp

# Generate for specific instance only (with all its projects)
coverity-dashboard --instance Production

# Generate specific project on specific instance only
coverity-dashboard --instance Production --project MyApp

# Use custom configuration file
coverity-dashboard --config my-config.json

What Gets Generated Automatically:

When you run coverity-dashboard with a multi-instance config.json:

  1. Aggregated Dashboard (output/dashboard_aggregated.html) - Combined view of all instances
  2. Instance Dashboards (output/{InstanceName}/dashboard.html) - One per instance
  3. Project Dashboards (output/{InstanceName}/dashboard_{ProjectName}.html) - All projects for each instance

Multi-Instance Dashboard Features:

  • Aggregated View: Combined metrics from all Coverity instances
  • Instance Comparison Charts: Side-by-side defect count comparison
  • Color-Coded Instances: Visual differentiation of instances
  • Cross-Instance Project List: All projects with instance attribution
  • Per-Instance Dashboards: Individual dashboards for each instance
  • Instance Filtering: Navigate between instances easily

For detailed multi-instance setup and usage, see MULTI_INSTANCE_GUIDE.md

For multi-ZIP aggregation (combine exports from different instances), see MULTI_ZIP_GUIDE.md

Performance & Caching

For large deployments with many instances/projects, enable caching to dramatically improve performance:

# Enable caching (24-hour TTL by default)
coverity-dashboard --cache

# Custom cache TTL (48 hours)
coverity-dashboard --cache --cache-ttl 48

# View cache statistics
coverity-dashboard --cache-stats

# Clear expired cache entries
coverity-dashboard --clear-cache

# Force refresh (bypass cache)
coverity-dashboard --no-cache

Performance Benefits:

  • First run: Same time as without caching (cache is built)
  • Subsequent runs: 90-95% faster (uses cached data)
  • Example: 30 minutes → 2 minutes for 10 instances × 100 projects

Progress Tracking for Large Operations:

# Enable progress tracking (for resumable operations)
coverity-dashboard --cache --track-progress

# Resume interrupted session
coverity-dashboard --cache --resume SESSION_ID

For detailed caching configuration, performance tuning, and troubleshooting, see CACHING_GUIDE.md

Export to JSON

Export all metrics to JSON files packaged in a ZIP:

coverity-export

This creates a timestamped ZIP file in the exports/ directory containing all metrics in JSON format. See the Export to ZIP section above for details.

Use Individual Metrics

You can also use the metrics module programmatically:

from coverity_metrics import CoverityMetrics

# Initialize with connection parameters
connection_params = {
    'host': 'localhost',
    'port': 5432,
    'database': 'coverity',
    'user': 'postgres',
    'password': 'your_password'
}

metrics = CoverityMetrics(connection_params=connection_params)

# Get specific metrics (top N results)
defects_by_severity = metrics.get_defects_by_severity()
print(defects_by_severity)

# Get defect density
density = metrics.get_defect_density_by_project()
print(density)

# Get top 10 file hotspots
hotspots = metrics.get_file_hotspots(limit=10)
print(hotspots)

# Get ALL file hotspots (not just top 10)
all_hotspots = metrics.get_file_hotspots(fetch_all=True)
print(f"Found {len(all_hotspots)} files with defects")

# Get overall summary
summary = metrics.get_overall_summary()
for key, value in summary.items():
    print(f"{key}: {value}")

Available Metric Methods

All methods return pandas DataFrames for easy manipulation:

Defect Metrics:

  • get_total_defects_by_project()
  • get_defects_by_severity()
  • get_defects_by_checker_category(limit=20, fetch_all=False)
  • get_defects_by_checker_name(limit=20, fetch_all=False)
  • get_defect_density_by_project()
  • get_file_hotspots(limit=20, fetch_all=False)

Triage Metrics:

  • get_defects_by_triage_status()
  • get_defects_by_classification()
  • get_defects_by_owner(limit=20, fetch_all=False)

Code Quality Metrics:

  • get_code_metrics_by_stream()
  • get_function_complexity_distribution()
  • get_most_complex_functions(limit=20, fetch_all=False)

Trend Metrics:

  • get_defect_trend_weekly(weeks=12)
  • get_file_count_trend_weekly(weeks=12)
  • get_snapshot_history(stream_name=None, limit=20, fetch_all=False)
  • get_defect_velocity_trend(days=90) - NEW! Introduction vs fix rates
  • get_cumulative_defect_trend(days=90) - NEW! Long-term accumulation
  • get_defect_trend_summary(days=90) - NEW! Velocity metrics and trend direction
  • get_technical_debt_summary() - NEW! Estimated remediation effort

Security Compliance Metrics:

  • get_owasp_top10_metrics() - NEW! OWASP Top 10 2025 category mapping
  • get_cwe_top25_metrics() - NEW! CWE Top 25 2025 dangerous weaknesses

Leaderboard Metrics:

  • get_top_projects_by_fix_rate(days=30, limit=10) - NEW! Projects by fix velocity
  • get_most_improved_projects(days=90, limit=10) - NEW! Best improvement trends
  • get_top_projects_by_triage_activity(days=30, limit=10) - NEW! Most active triage
  • get_top_users_by_fixes(days=30, limit=10) - NEW! Users by actual code fixes
  • get_top_triagers(days=30, limit=10) - NEW! Most active triagers
  • get_most_collaborative_users(days=30, limit=10) - NEW! Cross-project activity

User Activity:

  • get_user_login_statistics(days=30)
  • get_most_active_triagers(days=30, limit=10)

Performance Metrics:

  • get_database_statistics() - Database size and statistics
  • get_largest_tables(limit=10) - Largest database tables by size
  • get_snapshot_performance(limit=20) - Recent commit/analysis performance
  • get_commit_time_statistics() - Commit time averages and statistics
  • get_defect_discovery_rate(days=30) - Defect discovery trends over time

Summary:

  • get_overall_summary()
  • get_available_projects() - List all available projects

Note on fetch_all parameter:

  • When fetch_all=False (default): Returns top N results based on the limit parameter
  • When fetch_all=True: Returns ALL available results (ignores limit)
  • Use fetch_all=True for complete data exports or comprehensive analysis
  • Example: metrics.get_file_hotspots(fetch_all=True) returns ALL files with defects, not just top 20

Recommended Metrics for Different Use Cases

For Management/Executive Reports:

  1. Overall Summary - High-level statistics
  2. Defects by Severity - Risk assessment
  3. Defect Density by Project - Quality comparison across projects
  4. Weekly Defect Trend - Progress over time
  5. Defects by Triage Status - Workload and backlog
  6. Technical Debt Summary - NEW! Estimated remediation effort
  7. Top Projects by Fix Rate - NEW! Team performance ranking

For Development Teams:

  1. File Hotspots - Identify problematic files
  2. Most Complex Functions - Refactoring candidates
  3. Defects by Category - Common error patterns
  4. Defects by Owner - Individual workload
  5. Snapshot History - Analysis run results
  6. Top Fixers - NEW! Recognize high performers
  7. CWE Top 25 - NEW! Focus on dangerous weaknesses

For Quality Assurance:

  1. Defects by Checker - Tool effectiveness
  2. Defects by Classification - False positive rate
  3. Code Metrics by Stream - Code coverage
  4. Function Complexity - Code maintainability
  5. Defect Density - Quality benchmarks
  6. Technical Debt Summary - NEW! Remediation planning

For Security Teams:

  1. OWASP Top 10 Metrics - NEW! Web application security risks
  2. CWE Top 25 Metrics - NEW! Most dangerous weaknesses
  3. Defects by Severity - Critical vulnerability counts
  4. Security Category Defects - Security-specific findings
  5. Technical Debt (High Severity) - NEW! Security fix effort estimation

For Team Leads:

  1. Active Triagers - Team engagement
  2. Defects by Owner - Work distribution
  3. User Login Statistics - Tool adoption
  4. Weekly Trends - Team velocity
  5. Top Fixers and Triagers - NEW! Team performance metrics

Project Structure

coverity_metrics/              (project root)
├── config.json.example        # Configuration template
├── coverity_metrics/          # Python package
│   ├── __init__.py            # Package initialization
│   ├── __version__.py         # Version information
│   ├── db_connection.py       # Database connection handling
│   ├── metrics.py             # Core metrics calculation logic
│   ├── metrics_cache.py       # Caching and progress tracking
│   ├── multi_instance_metrics.py  # Multi-instance aggregation
│   ├── owasp_mapping.py       # OWASP Top 10 2025 CWE mappings (494 CWEs)
│   ├── cwe_top25_mapping.py   # CWE Top 25 2025 rankings and scores
│   ├── zip_data_loader.py     # ZIP-based offline data loader
│   ├── cli/
│   │   ├── dashboard.py       # Dashboard generator (main CLI)
│   │   ├── export.py          # JSON/ZIP export utility
│   │   └── report.py          # CLI metrics report
│   ├── templates/             # Jinja2 HTML templates
│   │   ├── dashboard.html     # Per-instance/project dashboard
│   │   └── dashboard_aggregated.html  # Multi-instance aggregated view
│   └── static/                # CSS/JS assets for dashboards
│       ├── css/
│       └── js/
├── requirements.txt           # Python dependencies
├── setup.py                   # Package setup
├── pyproject.toml             # Modern Python packaging
├── install.ps1                # Windows install / clean-reinstall helper
├── release.ps1                # Build, version-bump and publish script
├── README.md                  # This file
├── CHANGELOG.md               # Detailed version changelog
├── RELEASE_NOTES.md           # Release notes and version history
├── RELEASE_PROCESS.md         # How to cut a release
├── INSTALL.md                 # Detailed installation guide
├── USAGE_GUIDE.md             # Comprehensive usage examples
├── MULTI_INSTANCE_GUIDE.md    # Multi-instance setup and usage
├── MULTI_ZIP_GUIDE.md         # Multi-ZIP aggregation guide
├── CACHING_GUIDE.md           # Performance optimization guide
├── PRESENTATION_GUIDE.md      # Dashboard presentation guide
└── LICENSE                    # Project license

Extending the Tool

You can easily add new metrics by extending the CoverityMetrics class:

class CoverityMetrics:
    # ... existing methods ...
    
    def get_custom_metric(self):
        """Your custom metric description"""
        query = """
            SELECT ...
            FROM ...
        """
        results = self.db.execute_query_dict(query)
        return pd.DataFrame(results)

Troubleshooting

Database Connection Issues

  • Verify PostgreSQL is running: Check Coverity services
  • Check credentials in config.json
  • Ensure PostgreSQL port (default 5432) is accessible
  • Verify at least one instance is enabled in config.json

Missing Data

  • Some metrics may return empty if:
    • No snapshots have been committed
    • Streams haven't been analyzed
    • Defects haven't been triaged

Performance

  • For large databases, some queries may take time
  • Consider adding database indexes on frequently queried columns
  • Use the limit parameter to restrict result sizes

Security Notes

  • Database passwords are stored in config.json
  • Always add config.json to .gitignore before committing
  • Use read-only database credentials when possible
  • Set appropriate file system permissions on config.json
  • Never commit database credentials to version control
# Recommended file permissions (Linux/Mac)
chmod 600 config.json

# Add to .gitignore
echo "config.json" >> .gitignore
  • Use environment variables or secure vaults in production

License

This tool is provided as-is for use with Coverity installations.

Support

For issues or questions:

  1. Check the Coverity documentation for database schema details
  2. Review the SQL queries in metrics.py to understand data sources
  3. Use schema_explorer.py to investigate your specific database structure

Metadata

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