Bug: qty not finding issues

[patpatpat123]

What happened?

Hello qlty team,

Just wanted to reach out with a small issue.

We used to use Code Climate like this in out gitlab pipeline:

codeclimate:
  script:
    - docker pull codeclimate/codeclimate:latest
    - docker run --env CODECLIMATE_CODE="$PWD" --volume "$PWD":/code --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock --volume /tmp/cc:/tmp/cc codeclimate/codeclimate:latest analyze -f json > gl-code-quality-report.json || true
  image: docker:latest
  artifacts:
    paths: [ gl-code-quality-report.json ]
    reports:
      codequality: gl-code-quality-report.json
  services:
    - docker:29.0.4-dind

We now switched to qlty. Using it like this:

    - apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl jq
    - curl -L -o sarif-converter https://gitlab.com/ignis-build/sarif-converter/-/releases/permalink/latest/downloads/bin/sarif-converter-linux-amd64
    - chmod +x sarif-converter
    - qlty init --no || true
    - qlty check --sarif --no-error --no-formatters --no-fail src/main/ | tee qlty_report.sarif
    - jq '(.runs[]?.tool?.driver?.releaseDateUtc) |= (if test("T") then . else . + "T00:00:00Z" end)' qlty_report.sarif > qlty_report_fixed.sarif
    - ./sarif-converter --type codequality qlty_report_fixed.sarif gl-code-quality-report.json

However, it is not finding issues.

For instance, using Code Climate, it could find something like:

Major - Avoid too many `return` statements within this method.
in src/main/java/cMyClass.java:224

Minor - Method `foo` has a Cognitive Complexity of 10 (exceeds 5 allowed). Consider refactoring.
in src/main/java/Foo.java:200

But now, it does not find anything.

May I ask if :

• I configured it wrong. qlty still has the ability to find those issues, but the configuration is wrong, qlty is not able to run or find.

• The configuration is correct, but qlty lost the ability to find those issues.

Thank you in advance for your time helping me.
Good day!

What did you expect to happen?

Find the issues

Can you reproduce the problem?

Yes, consistently

CLI Version

0.619.0

Relevant log output

qlty init --no || true
› Initializing qlty in the current directory...
✔ Created .qlty/ directory
✔ Created qlty.toml config file with 4 plugins
Plugin          Version     Targets   Config
trufflehog      known_good  92 files  
ripgrep         known_good  53 files  
osv-scanner     known_good  1 files   
radarlint-java  known_good  53 files  
What's next?
  1. Read the documentation: https://qlty.sh/docs
  2. Get help and give feedback
     Our developers are on Discord: https://qlty.sh/discord
$ qlty check --sarif --no-error --no-formatters --no-fail src/main/ | tee qlty_report.sarif
{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oasis-tcs/sarif-spec/master/Schemata/sarif-schema-2.1.0.json",
  "version": "2.1.0",
  "runs": [
    {
      "tool": {
        "driver": {
          "name": "qlty",
          "informationUri": "https://github.com/qlty/qlty",
          "semanticVersion": "0.619.0",
          "version": "0.619.0 linux-x64 (community 2026-04-09)",
          "releaseDateUtc": "2026-04-09",
          "rules": [],
          "notifications": [
            {
              "level": "note",
              "message": {
                "text": "Successfully ran ripgrep in 1.32s [fgi32G]"
              },
              "descriptor": {
                "id": "qlty:message:invocation.concluded.success",
                "name": "qlty_check::executor",
                "shortDescription": {
                  "text": "Successfully ran ripgrep in 1.32s [fgi32G]"
                }
              }
            },
            {
              "level": "note",
              "message": {
                "text": "Successfully ran radarlint-java in 7.90s [ZodRKr]"
              },
              "descriptor": {
                "id": "qlty:message:invocation.concluded.success",
                "name": "qlty_check::executor",
                "shortDescription": {
                  "text": "Successfully ran radarlint-java in 7.90s [ZodRKr]"
                }
              }
            },
            {
              "level": "note",
              "message": {
                "text": "Successfully ran trufflehog in 3.05s [CzPQNG]"
              },
              "descriptor": {
                "id": "qlty:message:invocation.concluded.success",
                "name": "qlty_check::executor",
                "shortDescription": {
                  "text": "Successfully ran trufflehog in 3.05s [CzPQNG]"
                }
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "results": []
    }
  ]
}
✔ No issues

[davehenton]

Hey @patpatpat123 ! Sorry for the confusion there. The answer here is to run qlty smells.

The built-in qlty checks (like return-statements, nested-control-flow, etc.) are run via qlty smells, not qlty check. qlty smells I believe actually predates qlty check, which explains the difference in UX. We plan to clear this up/consolidate those commands at some point -- but for now, you'll need to run qlty smells for those built in checks. (More info can be found here: https://docs.qlty.sh/cli/commands/smells)

[patpatpat123]

No worries at all! Thanks for the answer.

With qlty smells:

    - apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl jq
    - curl -L -o sarif-converter https://gitlab.com/ignis-build/sarif-converter/-/releases/permalink/latest/downloads/bin/sarif-converter-linux-amd64
    - chmod +x sarif-converter
    - qlty init --no || true
    - qlty smells --sarif src/main/ | tee qlty_report.sarif
    - jq '(.runs[]?.tool?.driver?.releaseDateUtc) |= (if test("T") then . else . + "T00:00:00Z" end)' qlty_report.sarif > qlty_report_fixed.sarif
    - ./sarif-converter --type codequality qlty_report_fixed.sarif gl-code-quality-report.json

I am getting this scan result instead:

Major - Function with many parameters (count = 6): 

While this is indeed correct, I am still seeing the loss of previous scans results (taht are also valid)
Is there a way to get them back?

By the way, definitely, it would be cool to have a single solution, so user does not need to go back and forth between checks and smells.

Good day!

[patpatpat123]

gentle bump