Quality Gates

Quality gates are sets of conditions that a project must meet to be considered "production ready." Bob the Fixer uses quality gates to determine if your code passes or fails quality checks.

Understanding Quality Gates

A quality gate evaluates your code against defined thresholds:

QUALITY GATE STATUS

Status: ❌ **FAILED**

CONDITIONS:

✗ **new_bugs**
  - Comparator: LT (less than)
  - Actual Value: 3
  - Error Threshold: 1
  - Status: ERROR

✓ **new_vulnerabilities**
  - Comparator: LT
  - Actual Value: 0
  - Error Threshold: 1
  - Status: OK

Built-in Templates

Bob the Fixer provides three quality gate templates:

Strict Template

Zero tolerance for quality issues. Best for production-ready code.

Metric	Condition	Threshold
New Bugs	Less than	1
New Vulnerabilities	Less than	1
New Code Smells	Less than	1
New Coverage	Greater than	80%
New Duplication	Less than	3%

Use when:

• Deploying to production
• Building security-critical applications
• Working on financial or healthcare software

Balanced Template (Default)

Reasonable thresholds for most projects.

Metric	Condition	Threshold
New Bugs	Less than	1
New Vulnerabilities	Less than	1
New Blocker Issues	Less than	1
New Critical Issues	Less than	1
New Coverage	Greater than	60%
New Duplication	Less than	5%

Use when:

• Standard development workflow
• Most enterprise applications
• Team projects with code review

Permissive Template

Relaxed rules for legacy or experimental code.

Metric	Condition	Threshold
New Blocker Issues	Less than	1
New Critical Issues	Less than	5
New Duplication	Less than	10%

Use when:

• Working with legacy codebases
• Rapid prototyping
• Gradual quality improvement

Setting Quality Gates

During Auto-Setup

Set up this project with a strict quality gate

Uses sonar_auto_setup with template: "strict".

In Configuration

Add to your bobthefixer.env:

SONAR_QUALITY_GATE=strict

Via MCP Tool

{
  "template": "strict",
  "force": true
}

Checking Quality Gate Status

Via AI Assistant

Check if my project passes the quality gate

Uses sonar_get_quality_gate tool.

Response Format

QUALITY GATE STATUS

Status: ✅ **PASSED**

CONDITIONS:

✓ **new_bugs**
  - Actual Value: 0
  - Error Threshold: 1
  - Status: OK

✓ **new_vulnerabilities**
  - Actual Value: 0
  - Error Threshold: 1
  - Status: OK

✓ **new_coverage**
  - Actual Value: 75.5
  - Error Threshold: 60
  - Status: OK

PERIOD:
- Mode: REFERENCE_BRANCH
- Date: 2024-01-15

Clean as You Code Status: COMPLIANT

Quality Metrics Explained

Bug Metrics

Metric	Description
bugs	Total bugs in all code
new_bugs	Bugs in new/changed code only
reliability_rating	A-E rating based on bugs

Vulnerability Metrics

Metric	Description
vulnerabilities	Total security vulnerabilities
new_vulnerabilities	Vulnerabilities in new code
security_rating	A-E rating based on vulnerabilities

Code Smell Metrics

Metric	Description
code_smells	Total maintainability issues
new_code_smells	Code smells in new code
sqale_rating	A-E maintainability rating

Coverage Metrics

Metric	Description
coverage	Overall test coverage %
new_coverage	Coverage of new code
line_coverage	Lines covered by tests
branch_coverage	Branches covered by tests

Duplication Metrics

Metric	Description
duplicated_lines_density	% of duplicated code
new_duplicated_lines_density	Duplication in new code
duplicated_blocks	Number of duplicate blocks

Clean as You Code

Bob the Fixer follows SonarQube's "Clean as You Code" methodology:

1. Focus on new code - Don't get overwhelmed by existing issues
2. Set clear standards - Define what "clean" means for your project
3. Fail fast - Catch issues before they merge

Quality gates primarily evaluate new code to:

• Prevent new issues from entering the codebase
• Allow gradual cleanup of legacy code
• Keep the feedback loop tight

Customizing Quality Gates

In SonarQube UI

1. Open http://localhost:9000
2. Go to Quality Gates
3. Create or copy an existing gate
4. Add/modify conditions
5. Set as default for your project

Condition Operators

Operator	Meaning	Example
LT	Less than	bugs LT 1 (must have 0 bugs)
GT	Greater than	coverage GT 80 (must have >80%)
EQ	Equals	Rarely used
NE	Not equals	Rarely used

Best Practices

Starting a New Project

1. Use Strict template
2. Configure CI to fail on quality gate failure
3. Review and fix issues before merging

Improving Legacy Code

1. Start with Permissive template
2. Track metrics over time
3. Gradually tighten thresholds
4. Focus on new code first

Team Guidelines

Practice	Recommendation
PR Checks	Block merge on quality gate failure
Coverage	Require tests for new code
Reviews	Use issue reports in code review
Monitoring	Track quality metrics in dashboards

Troubleshooting

"Quality gate not found"

Ensure the project has been scanned at least once:

Scan this project with autoSetup: true

"No data for quality gate"

Quality gates need analysis data. Run a scan first:

Scan this project and then check the quality gate

Gate always failing

Check which conditions are failing:

Which quality gate conditions are failing?

Then address the specific metrics:

• Coverage: Add more tests
• Bugs: Fix detected issues
• Duplication: Refactor duplicate code

Next Steps

• SonarQube Integration - Full metrics reference
• Technical Debt - Understanding debt estimates
• Configuration - Customize quality settings