QGIS Plugin Analyzer 🛡️

👉 View Full Rules Catalog (RULES.md)

Quality Metrics:

The QGIS Plugin Analyzer is a static analysis tool designed specifically for QGIS (PyQGIS) plugin developers. Its goal is to elevate plugin quality by ensuring they follow community best practices and are optimized for AI-assisted development.

✨ Main Features

Security & correctness

• Bandit-inspired Security Core: Detects eval/exec (B307/B102), unsafe pickle (B301), shell=True (B602), SQL injection (B608) and hardcoded secrets; findings carry CWE ids.
• External security tools (optional): security --tools bandit,detect-secrets,flake8 runs the real portal tools, normalizes their findings (portal_severity, blocking) and emits --json; missing tools are reported as tool_unavailable with exit code 2.
• Deep Entropy Secret Scanner: Detect hardcoded API keys, passwords and tokens via regex + information entropy (security --deep).
• Extended Safety Audit: Unmatched signal connect/disconnect paths, missing slots and UI-blocking loops, with QgsTask suggestions.
• Qt Resource Validation: Detects missing/broken resource paths (:/plugins/...).

QGIS standards & modernization

• Precise AST rules: i18n (self.tr() / QCoreApplication.translate()), obsolete API, protected members, mandatory cleanup, iface-as-argument, and more.
• Qt6 Migration Rules: 11 AST-based QT6_* rules (drop-in parity with flake8-qgis QGS4xx) detecting APIs removed in Qt6.
• QGIS Metadata Rules: 5 catalog-backed METADATA_* checks (repository, version, QGIS 4 readiness, deprecated supportsQt6, category) in the metadata scope and portal profile.
• Official Repository Compliance: Validates binaries and metadata URLs before upload. The source-tree size is informational; the portal 25 MB limit applies to the built ZIP (qgis-manage's artifact layer).

Quality & maintainability

• Cyclomatic Complexity Gate: --max-cc N fails CI when a function exceeds the threshold (cc_gate/cc_violations in --json).
• Design Patterns & Anti-patterns: Detects singleton/factory/observer/strategy/decorator, plus GOD_OBJECT, SPAGHETTI_CODE, MAGIC_NUMBER, DEAD_CODE.
• Halstead Metrics & Optimizations: Per-module Halstead metrics and module_too_large / complexity_refactoring suggestions.
• Transversal # noqa: Suppress any rule inline with # noqa (whole line) or # noqa: RULE_ID (single rule).
• Enhanced Configuration Profiles: Rule-level severity control (error, warning, info, ignore) via pyproject.toml.
• Integrated Ruff Analysis: Runs Ruff through the active interpreter, exposing ruff_metadata.tool_unavailable when unavailable.

Architecture & performance

• High-Performance Engine: ProcessPoolExecutor with single-pass AST traversal, shared worker context, a configurable worker count (--workers) and file batching.
• Deep Semantic Analysis: Cross-file dependency graph (Mermaid), circular-import detection and coupling metrics.
• Project Auto-Detection: Distinguishes official QGIS plugins from generic Python projects and tailors validation accordingly.
• Advanced Ignore Engine: respects .gitignore, .qgisignore and .analyzerignore (ordered, ! negation), with default excludes for docs/, tests/, .venv/ and build/; add extra patterns with --exclude.

DX & integration

• Interactive Auto-Fix: AST-based fixes (GDAL imports, PyQt bridge, logging, i18n) with Git-status verification and diff preview.
• CI Output Contract: --json, --include-content, and a versioned/schema'd project_context.json (schema/schema_version, analyzer_version, ruff_metadata, patterns, optimizations).
• Quality Gates in CI: ruff + mypy + pytest (coverage floor) and the --max-cc self-analysis gate on Python 3.11–3.13.
• Embedded Web Server: Built-in serve command to browse HTML reports.
• Real-time Progress: CLI progress bar with ETA tracking.
• Integrated Lint Analysis: Runs Ruff and, optionally, Flake8 (--flake8 / --linters ruff,flake8) through the active interpreter, exposing ruff_metadata / flake8_metadata with explicit tool_unavailable flags.
• Zero Runtime Dependencies: Standard library only; Ruff is the only required external tool. Flake8, Bandit and detect-secrets are optional extras (qgis-analyzer[flake8], [security], [portal]).

🆕 What's New in v1.19.2

SIGNAL_LEAK parent and loop corrections — follow-up patch for issue #1.

• 🚫 Translated text is not a parent — QRadioButton(self.tr("A")) no longer becomes a false parent_child.
• 🔗 Pairing fixed — each sender in a tuple loop keeps its own slot.
• 📋 List wrappers — for task in list([self.task]) resolves the original connection.
• 🧾 --signals — detailed unmatched paths with file:line, confidence and lifetime (informational unless emit=true).

📖 Full Release Notes | 🗺️ CLI Commands Roadmap

🚀 Installation and Usage

Installation with uv (Recommended):

If you have uv installed, you can install the analyzer quickly and in isolation:

1. As a global tool (isolated):

uv tool install git+https://github.com/geociencio/qgis-plugin-analyzer.git

2. Standard pip installation (Git):

pip install git+https://github.com/geociencio/qgis-plugin-analyzer.git

3. Local installation for development:

git clone https://github.com/geociencio/qgis-plugin-analyzer
cd qgis-plugin-analyzer
uv sync

Installation with pip:

pip install .

Main Commands:

1. Analyze a Plugin (Full Analysis):

qgis-analyzer analyze /path/to/your/plugin -o ./quality_report

2. Specialized Analysis (NEW in v1.9.0):

# Internationalization audit only
qgis-analyzer analyze i18n /path/to/your/plugin

# Security vulnerability scanning only
qgis-analyzer analyze security /path/to/your/plugin

# Performance and UI blocking detection only
qgis-analyzer analyze performance /path/to/your/plugin

# Dependency and coupling analysis only
qgis-analyzer analyze architecture /path/to/your/plugin

# QGIS metadata validation only
qgis-analyzer analyze metadata /path/to/your/plugin

3. Auto-Fix issues (Dry Run):

qgis-analyzer fix /path/to/your/plugin

4. Legacy Support: The default command remains analysis if no subcommand is specified:

qgis-analyzer /path/to/your/plugin

🔄 Pre-commit Hook

You can run qgis-plugin-analyzer automatically before every commit to ensure quality. Add this to your .pre-commit-config.yaml:

  - repo: https://github.com/geociencio/qgis-plugin-analyzer
    rev: main  # Use 'main' for latest features or a specific tag like v1.5.0
    hooks:
      - id: qgis-plugin-analyzer

🤖 GitHub Action

Use it directly in your CI/CD workflows:

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - name: Run QGIS Quality Check
    uses: geociencio/qgis-plugin-analyzer@main
    with:
      path: .
      output: quality_report
      args: --profile release

⚙️ Configuration (pyproject.toml)

You can customize the analyzer's behavior using a [tool.qgis-analyzer] section in your pyproject.toml.

[tool.qgis-analyzer]
# Profiles allow different settings for CI vs Local
[tool.qgis-analyzer.profiles.default]
strict = false
generate_html = false  # CLI default
exclude = ["generated/"]  # defaults already exclude docs/, tests/, .venv/, build/

[tool.qgis-analyzer.profiles.release]
strict = true
fail_on_error = true

# Portal/CI profile: real tools, metadata rules and a security gate.
[tool.qgis-analyzer.profiles.portal]
linters = ["ruff", "flake8"]
security_tools = ["native", "bandit", "detect-secrets", "flake8"]
security_fail_on = "critical"
metadata_rules = true
fail_on = "critical"

[tool.qgis-analyzer.profiles.default.rules]
GDAL_DIRECT_IMPORT = "error"    # Ban direct 'import gdal'
IFACE_AS_ARGUMENT = "warning"   # Warn on iface passed as an argument
MANUAL_RESOURCE_PATH = "ignore" # Ignore resource path checks

# i18n rule configuration (AST-based):
[tool.qgis-analyzer.profiles.default.rules.MISSING_I18N]
extra_ignore_calls = ["customSetLabel"]
extra_exact_ignores = ["My App Name"]

# Informational signal matching (opt in to a gate with emit = true):
[tool.qgis-analyzer.profiles.default.rules.SIGNAL_LEAK]
emit = false
scope = "class"           # function | class | file
confidence = "low"        # low shows all; medium/high reduce noise
include_benign = false
ignore_senders = []
ignore_paths = []

Precedence is CLI > profile > default: security --profile portal uses security_tools/security_fail_on unless --tools/--fail-on are passed; analyze --profile portal runs linters, metadata_rules and the fail_on security gate.

⚠️ Technical Limitations

This tool performs Static Analysis (AST & Regex parsing). It does not execute your code or load QGIS libraries.

• Dynamic Imports: Imports inside functions or conditional blocks might be analyzed differently than top-level imports.
• Runtime Validation: Checks like "Missing Resources" rely on static string analysis of .qrc files and path strings. It cannot verify resources loaded dynamically at runtime.
• False Positives: While we strive for accuracy, complex meta-programming or unusual patterns might trigger false positives. Use # noqa or .analyzerignore to handle these cases.
• Optional external tools: Flake8, Bandit and detect-secrets are not bundled. Install qgis-analyzer[flake8], [security] or [portal]; when a requested tool is missing, the report sets tool_unavailable (and security exits 2) instead of reporting a silent zero.

⌨️ Full CLI Reference

Note: The Python package is named qgis-plugin-analyzer, but the command-line tool is installed as qgis-analyzer.

qgis-analyzer analyze [scope] [path]

Audits an existing QGIS plugin repository with optional specialized scopes.

NEW in v1.9.0: Specialized analysis scopes for targeted auditing.

Available Scopes:

• i18n - Internationalization and translation audit (detects untranslated strings)
• security - Security vulnerability scanning (unsafe calls, hardcoded secrets, SQL injection)
• performance - Performance and UI blocking detection (blocking loops, missing indexes)
• architecture - Dependency and coupling analysis (imports, QGIS API usage)
• metadata - QGIS metadata validation (metadata.txt compliance)
• all or no scope - Full analysis (default, legacy compatible)

Arguments:

Ignore files and exclusions

The matcher is ordered and last match wins, so a later !pattern re-includes a path:

defaults → .gitignore → .qgisignore → .analyzerignore → --exclude / profile exclude.

Default excludes include docs/, tests/, .venv/, build/, dist/, caches and generated artifacts. To analyze one of those directories again:

qgis-analyzer analyze . --exclude '!docs/'
qgis-analyzer analyze . --exclude '!tests/'

Examples:

# Full analysis (legacy compatible)
qgis-analyzer analyze .
qgis-analyzer analyze /path/to/plugin

# Specialized i18n analysis (both forms are equivalent)
qgis-analyzer analyze i18n .
qgis-analyzer analyze . --scope i18n

# Analyze docs/ and tests/ explicitly
qgis-analyzer analyze . --exclude '!docs/' --exclude '!tests/'

# Security-only scan with reports
qgis-analyzer analyze security . --report

qgis-analyzer fix

Automatically fix common QGIS issues identified during analysis.

qgis-analyzer summary

Shows a professional, color-coded summary of findings directly in your terminal.

qgis-analyzer security

Performs a focused security scan on a file or directory.

Examples:

# Native scan (regex + AST rules); entropy only with --deep
qgis-analyzer security .

# Portal parity: real Bandit + detect-secrets + Flake8, JSON, block on critical findings
qgis-analyzer security . --tools bandit,detect-secrets,flake8 --json --fail-on critical

# Machine-readable native report
qgis-analyzer security . --deep --json

Exit codes: 0 clean, 1 findings at/above --fail-on, 2 invalid input or an unavailable requested tool.

qgis-analyzer version

Shows the current version of the analyzer.

Example:

# Executive summary
qgis-analyzer summary

# Identify high-complexity functions
qgis-analyzer summary --by functions

qgis-analyzer list-rules

Displays the full catalog of implemented QGIS audit rules with their severity and descriptions.

qgis-analyzer graph

Visualizes the project's dependency graph.

qgis-analyzer serve

Starts a local web server to view the generated HTML reports.

qgis-analyzer init

Initializes a recommended .analyzerignore file in the current directory with common Python and QGIS development exclusions.

📊 Generated Reports

Written to the --output directory (default ./analysis_results):

• project_context.json — machine-readable contract (schema v1):
  • Top level: schema/schema_version, analyzer_version, project_name, project_path, analyzed_at, metrics.
  • ruff_findings + ruff_metadata (exit_code, tool_unavailable, command).
  • flake8_findings + flake8_metadata (same fields plus formatter) when --flake8/--linters includes Flake8.
  • repository_compliance includes constraint_errors (blocking, e.g. binaries) and constraint_warnings (informational size).
  • patterns (design patterns) and optimizations (module_too_large, complexity_refactoring).
  • Per module: path, lines, complexity, imports, functions, classes, ast_issues, research_metrics (type-hint/docstring coverage, halstead).
  • research_metrics.qgis_context.signal_connections: per-connection sender, receiver, slot, status, confidence, lifetime, connection_type; qgis_context_summary.signal_connections aggregates them. signal_leaks remains a deprecated sender-string list.
  • cc_gate / cc_violations when --max-cc is used with --json.
  • security --json emits its own envelope: schema/schema_version, analyzer_version, command, scope, tools, tool_status, tool_unavailable, findings (portal_severity, blocking, tool), summary and exit_code.
• PROJECT_SUMMARY.md / PROJECT_SUMMARY.html — human-readable report.
• analyzer.log — run log.

The JSON is consumed by ai-context-core; keep the schema keys stable (bump schema_version on change).

📜 Audit Rules

For a complete list of all implemented checks, their severity, and recommendations, please refer to the:

👉 Detailed Rules Catalog (RULES.md)

📚 References and Standards

The development of this analyzer is based on official QGIS community guidelines, geospatial standards, and industry best practices:

Official QGIS Documentation

• PyQGIS Developer Cookbook: The primary resource for PyQGIS API usage and standards.
• QGIS Plugin Repository Requirements: Mandatory criteria for plugin approval in the official repository.
• QGIS Coding Standards: Core style and organization guidelines for the QGIS project.
• QGIS HIG (Human Interface Guidelines): Standards for consistent and accessible user interface design.
• QGIS Security Scanning Documentation: Official guide on automated security analysis (Bandit, detect-secrets) for plugins.

Industry & Community Standards

• flake8-qgis Rules: Community-driven linting rules for PyQGIS (QGS101-412).
• PEP 8 Style Guide: The fundamental style guide for Python code.
• PEP 257 Docstring Conventions: Standards for docstring structure and content.
• Maintainability Index (SEI): Methodology for measuring software maintainability.
• Conventional Commits: Standard for clear, machine-readable commit history.
• Keep a Changelog: Best practices for maintainable version history.

Security Standards

• Bandit (PyCQA): The security rules implemented (B1xx - B6xx) are directly derived from the Bandit project's rule set for identifying common security issues in Python code.
• CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration): Security findings are mapped to standard CWE IDs (e.g., CWE-78 Command Injection, CWE-89 SQL Injection) for industry-standard classification.
• OWASP Top 10: The "Hardcoded Secret" and "Injection" checks align with critical OWASP vulnerabilities.

Internal Resources

• Detailed Rules Catalog: Full documentation of all audit rules implemented in this analyzer.
• Standardized Scoring Metrics: Mathematical logic and thresholds for project evaluation.
• Project Roadmap: Current status and future plans for the analyzer.
• Release Process: How to cut a release — versioning, GitHub Release and PyPI publication.
• Comparison vs Alternatives: Internal positioning notes (kept out of this README).
• Documentation Folder: Historical release notes, competitive analysis, and modernization guides.

🛠️ Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please refer to our Contributing Guide to learn how to report bugs, propose rules, and submit code changes.

Audit rules are located in src/analyzer/rules/ (regex catalog) and src/analyzer/visitors/ (AST visitors). Feel free to add new rules following the existing pattern!

⚖️ License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3 (GPL v3). See the LICENSE file for details.

Developed for the SecInterp team and the QGIS community.