Scanning Issues

Troubleshooting SonarQube analysis and scanning problems.

Sources Not Found

Symptoms

Error: No sources to analyze
Error: sonar.sources does not contain any source file

Causes

• Incorrect source path configuration
• Sources excluded by patterns
• Wrong project structure detection

Diagnosis

# Check current source configuration
cat sonar-project.properties | grep sonar.sources

# List actual source files
find . -name "*.ts" -o -name "*.js" | head -20

Solutions

Auto-Detect Sources

# In your AI assistant
Detect my project structure and configure sources

This runs sonar_project_discovery to analyze your project.

Manual Configuration

# In your AI assistant
Generate a SonarQube config with sources in "src" folder

Or create sonar-project.properties manually:

sonar.projectKey=my-project
sonar.sources=src
sonar.tests=tests,**/*.test.ts
sonar.exclusions=**/node_modules/**,**/dist/**

Common Source Patterns

Project Type	Typical Sources
React/Next.js	src, app, pages
Node.js API	src, lib
Python	. or src
Java Maven	src/main/java
Go	.

Analysis Takes Too Long

Symptoms

• Scan runs for 10+ minutes
• Eventually times out
• Progress stalls at certain percentage

Causes

• Large codebase
• Too many files included
• Missing exclusions
• Slow SonarQube server

Solutions

Add Exclusions

Exclude non-source files:

# In sonar-project.properties
sonar.exclusions=\
  **/node_modules/**,\
  **/dist/**,\
  **/build/**,\
  **/coverage/**,\
  **/*.min.js,\
  **/*.bundle.js,\
  **/vendor/**

Or via tool call:

# In your AI assistant
Generate config excluding node_modules, dist, and build directories

Increase Timeouts

# For Codex (most prone to timeouts)
codex mcp add bob-the-fixer \
  --env SCAN_TIMEOUT=1200000 \
  ...

Incremental Analysis

For subsequent scans, use autoSetup: false:

# In your AI assistant
Scan the project (use existing configuration)

This skips project setup and runs faster.

Check Server Resources

# Monitor SonarQube during scan
docker stats bobthefixer_sonarqube

# If CPU/memory maxed, increase Docker resources

No Issues Found

Symptoms

• Clean scan when issues obviously exist
• Zero bugs, zero code smells
• Coverage shows 0%

Causes

• Language plugins not installed
• Quality profile not assigned
• Files not recognized
• Rules disabled

Diagnosis

# In your AI assistant
Show me the project metrics

Check:

• Languages detected
• Files analyzed
• Rules applied

Solutions

Check Language Detection

# In your AI assistant
What languages are detected in this project?

If your language isn't detected:

1. Check file extensions are standard (.ts, .js, .py, etc.)
2. Verify language plugins in SonarQube UI → Administration → Marketplace

Verify Quality Profile

In SonarQube UI:

1. Go to your project
2. Project Settings → Quality Profiles
3. Ensure a profile is assigned for your language

Check Rules

# In your AI assistant
What rules are enabled for this project?

If rules seem missing:

1. SonarQube UI → Quality Profiles
2. Check your language profile
3. Ensure rules are activated

Coverage Not Detected

Symptoms

Coverage: 0%
No coverage information

Causes

• Coverage report not generated
• Report path not configured
• Wrong report format

Solutions

Generate Coverage First

Run your tests with coverage before scanning:

# JavaScript/TypeScript (Jest)
npm test -- --coverage

# Python (pytest)
pytest --cov=. --cov-report=xml

# Java (Maven)
mvn clean verify

Configure Report Path

# JavaScript/TypeScript
sonar.javascript.lcov.reportPaths=coverage/lcov.info

# Python
sonar.python.coverage.reportPaths=coverage.xml

# Java
sonar.coverage.jacoco.xmlReportPaths=target/site/jacoco/jacoco.xml

Or via tool:

# In your AI assistant
Generate config with coverage report at coverage/lcov.info

Verify Report Exists

# Check the report exists
ls -la coverage/lcov.info

# Verify it has content
head -20 coverage/lcov.info

Scan Fails Immediately

Symptoms

ERROR: Error during SonarScanner execution
Analysis failed

Common Causes & Fixes

Java Version Issues

# Check Java version
java -version

# SonarQube requires Java 17+
# Install if needed:
brew install openjdk@17  # macOS
sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk  # Ubuntu

Scanner Not Found

# The installer includes sonar-scanner
# Verify it exists:
ls /path/to/bob-the-fixer/bin/sonar-scanner

# Or use npx
npx sonar-scanner --version

Invalid Project Key

Error: "my project" is not a valid project key

Project keys must:

• Start with a letter
• Contain only letters, numbers, -, _, ., :
• No spaces

# Valid
my-project
my_project_123

# Invalid
my project
My Project!

Duplicate Analysis

Symptoms

• Same issues reported multiple times
• Issue count keeps growing
• Analysis seems to run on old code

Solutions

Clean Analysis

# In your AI assistant
Delete the current project and set up fresh

This uses sonar_delete_project and sonar_auto_setup.

Check for Multiple Configs

# Look for duplicate config files
find . -name "sonar-project.properties" -o -name "bobthefixer.env"

# Remove duplicates, keep only root-level config

Multi-Module Projects

Symptoms

• Only some modules scanned
• Module not found errors
• Inconsistent results

Solutions

Configure Modules

# In your AI assistant
Generate config for our monorepo with frontend and backend modules

Example multi-module config:

sonar.projectKey=my-monorepo
sonar.modules=frontend,backend

frontend.sonar.projectBaseDir=packages/frontend
frontend.sonar.sources=src

backend.sonar.projectBaseDir=packages/backend
backend.sonar.sources=src

Scan Individual Modules

For large monorepos, scan modules separately:

# In your AI assistant
Scan only the frontend package

Debugging Scans

Enable Verbose Output

# In your AI assistant
Scan the project with debug logging enabled

View Scanner Logs

# Recent scan log
cat .scannerwork/scanner-report/analysis-log.txt

# Or in SonarQube UI
# Project → Activity → Most recent analysis → Show details

Common Log Messages

Message	Meaning	Action
"X files indexed"	Files found	Check if count is reasonable
"0 files indexed"	No files found	Check source paths
"Language not installed"	Missing plugin	Install in SonarQube
"Out of memory"	Heap exhausted	Increase scanner memory

Next Steps

After resolving scanning issues:

1. Run a fresh scan to verify
2. Check Quality Gates pass
3. Start fixing issues

If problems persist, see Connection Issues to verify SonarQube connectivity.