Source URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43207942
Source: Hacker News
Title: Show HN: Globstar – Open-source static analysis toolkit
Feedly Summary: Comments
AI Summary and Description: Yes
Summary: The text discusses the launch of Globstar, a new open-source static analysis toolkit from DeepSource, which enables developers to create custom code quality and security checks using YAML or Go. The innovation promotes ease of use, especially for AppSec and DevOps teams, by leveraging AI capabilities for code analysis.
Detailed Description: The text presents an introduction to Globstar, a static analysis toolkit aimed at improving code quality and security checks across various codebases. Here are the major points:
– **Open-source Initiative**: DeepSource has made Globstar available as an open-source toolkit, responding to feedback from customers about the need for custom checks in their codebases.
– **User-Friendly Framework**: Traditionally, writing static analysis checkers required expertise in static analysis. Globstar addresses this by simplifying the process, allowing teams to create custom checks without needing deep technical knowledge.
– **Leveraging AI**: The authors highlight the role of modern AI tools, such as ChatGPT and Claude, in generating efficient queries for tree-sitter, which is the underlying technology powering Globstar’s functionality. This aspect underscores the synergy between AI advancements and software development workflows.
– **Design Philosophy**:
– Instead of relying on a new domain-specific language (DSL), Globstar uses tree-sitter’s native query syntax for direct and precise access to the code’s Abstract Syntax Tree (AST). This decision allows developers to interact more meaningfully with their code structure.
– The toolkit is built to be incrementally adoptable, with a YAML interface for simpler checks and a Go interface for more complex analysis needs.
– **Key Features**:
– Written in Go with native tree-sitter bindings.
– Easily integrates into a code repository without build steps.
– Supports over 20 programming languages via tree-sitter.
– **Future Roadmap**: The authors express excitement for the future of Globstar and invite user feedback, indicating their commitment to ongoing improvements and community engagement.
Overall, Globstar stands out as a significant development tool for security and compliance professionals within the application security and DevOps domains, potentially revolutionizing how security checks are implemented and maintained across software projects.