Adopt
Semgrep is a static analysis platform offering SAST, SCA, and secrets detection with a uniquely developer-friendly custom rule DSL. Its March 2026 Multimodal release combines the deterministic Semgrep Pro engine with LLM reasoning to catch both classic vulnerabilities and complex business-logic flaws.
Why It Matters for AI-Assisted Development
AI-generated code is syntactically fluent but frequently introduces subtle security issues — SQL injection, SSRF, broken authentication — that pattern-matching alone can miss. Semgrep addresses this with a hybrid approach:
- Semgrep Multimodal (March 2026): Deterministic SAST catches classic issues (XSS, SQLi) while AI-powered analysis uncovers IDOR and business-logic vulnerabilities — flaw classes that account for ~49% of high/critical bug bounty findings and are especially common in AI-generated code.
- AI-Powered Memories: Turns manual triage feedback into reusable context, reducing false positives. One customer closed 47% of their SSRF backlog with this feature.
- MCP Server: Integrates directly with AI coding agents (Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot, Windsurf) to scan AI-generated code in real time.
Strengths
- Custom rule authoring in a YAML DSL that resembles the code being searched — far more accessible than CodeQL's query language
- 3,000+ community rules plus 20,000+ proprietary rules in the Pro engine
- Cross-file dataflow analysis in the paid platform
- Over 1 million managed scans per week; 6M+ findings validated with 95% positive feedback
- Broad language support (30+)
Limitations
- Cross-file dataflow requires the paid platform (not in Community Edition)
- The OpenGrep fork (Jan 2025) split the community after advanced features moved behind a paywall
- No DAST capabilities — you'll need a separate tool for runtime testing
Pricing
- Community Edition (OSS): Free, LGPL-2.1, single-file analysis
- AppSec Platform Free Tier: Free for up to 10 contributors / 50 repos, includes cross-file analysis
- Teams: $35/contributor/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing