About the dependency submission API
You can use the REST API to submit dependencies for a project. This enables you to add dependencies, such as those resolved when software is compiled or built, to GitHub's dependency graph feature, providing a more complete picture of all of your project's dependencies.
The dependency graph shows any dependencies you submit using the API in addition to any dependencies that are identified from manifest or lock files in the repository (for example, a package-lock.json
file in a JavaScript project). For more information about viewing the dependency graph, see "Exploring the dependencies of a repository."
Submitted dependencies will receive Dependabot alerts and Dependabot security updates for any known vulnerabilities. You will only get Dependabot alerts for dependencies that are from one of the supported ecosystems for the GitHub Advisory Database. For more information about these ecosystems, see "About the GitHub Advisory database." For transitive dependencies submitted via the dependency submission API, Dependabot will automatically open pull requests to update the parent dependency, if an update is available.
Submitted dependencies will be shown in dependency review, but are not available in your organization's dependency insights.
Note: The dependency review API and the dependency submission API work together. This means that the dependency review API will include dependencies submitted via the dependency submission API.
Dependencies are submitted to the dependency submission API in the form of a snapshot. A snapshot is a set of dependencies associated with a commit SHA and other metadata, that reflects the current state of your repository for a commit. Snapshots can be generated from your dependencies detected at build time or from a software bill of materials (SBOM). There are GitHub Actions that support either of these use cases. For more information about the dependency submission API, see "REST API endpoints for dependency submission."
Submitting dependencies at build-time
You can use the dependency submission API in a GitHub Actions workflow to submit dependencies for your project when your project is built.
Using pre-made actions
The simplest way to use the dependency submission API is by adding a pre-made action to your repository that will gather and convert the list of dependencies to the required snapshot format and submit the list to the API. Actions that complete these steps for various ecosystems are available on GitHub Marketplace. Some of these actions are provided by third parties. You can find links to the currently available actions in the table below.
Ecosystem | Action | Maintained by GitHub |
---|---|---|
Go | Go Dependency Submission | |
Gradle | Gradle Dependency Submission | |
Maven | Maven Dependency Tree Dependency Submission | |
Mill | Mill Dependency Submission | |
Scala | Sbt Dependency Submission | |
NuGet and others | Component Detection dependency submission action |
Note: For the Component Detection dependency submission action, other supported ecosystems include Vcpkg, Conan, Conda, Crates, as well as NuGet.
For example, the following Go Dependency Submission workflow calculates the dependencies for a Go build-target (a Go file with a main
function) and submits the list to the dependency submission API.
name: Go Dependency Submission
on:
push:
branches:
- main
# The API requires write permission on the repository to submit dependencies
permissions:
contents: write
# Environment variables to configure Go and Go modules. Customize as necessary
env:
GOPROXY: '' # A Go Proxy server to be used
GOPRIVATE: '' # A list of modules are considered private and not requested from GOPROXY
jobs:
go-action-detection:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: 'Checkout Repository'
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-go@v5
with:
go-version: ">=1.18.0"
- name: Run snapshot action
uses: actions/go-dependency-submission@v1
with:
# Required: Define the repo path to the go.mod file used by the
# build target
go-mod-path: go-example/go.mod
#
# Optional. Define the repo path of a build target,
# a file with a `main()` function.
# If undefined, this action will collect all dependencies
# used by all build targets for the module. This may
# include Go dependencies used by tests and tooling.
go-build-target: go-example/cmd/octocat.go
Creating your own action
Alternatively, you can write your own action to submit dependencies for your project at build-time. Your workflow should:
- Generate a list of dependencies for your project.
- Translate the list of dependencies into the snapshot format accepted by the dependency submission API. For more information about the format, see the body parameters for the "Create a repository snapshot" API endpoint in "REST API endpoints for dependency submission."
- Submit the formatted list of dependencies to the dependency submission API.
GitHub maintains the Dependency Submission Toolkit, a TypeScript library to help you build your own GitHub Action for submitting dependencies to the dependency submission API. For more information about writing an action, see "Sharing automations".
Generating and submitting a software bill of materials (SBOM)
An SBOM is a formal, machine-readable inventory of a project's dependencies and associated information (such as versions, package identifiers, licenses, and copyright information). SBOMs help reduced supply chain risks by:
- providing transparency about the dependencies used by your repository
- allowing vulnerabilities to be identified early in the process
- providing insights in the license compliance, security, or quality issues that may exist in your codebase
- enabling you to better comply with various data protection standards
Generating a software bill of materials (SBOM)
To generate an SBOM, you can use:
- The GitHub UI. For more information about how to export an SBOM for a repository using information from the dependency graph, see "Exporting a software bill of materials for your repository."
- The REST API. For more information, see "REST API endpoints for software bill of materials (SBOM)."
- GitHub Actions. The following actions will generate an SBOM for your repository and attach it as a workflow artifact which you can download and use in other applications. For more information about downloading workflow artifacts, see "Downloading workflow artifacts."
Action | Details | Maintained by GitHub |
---|---|---|
SBOM-generator-action | Uses the information in your dependency graph to generate an SPDX SBOM | |
Anchore SBOM Action | Uses Syft to create SPDX 2.2 compatible SBOMs with the supported ecosystems | |
sbom-tool by Microsoft | Scans your dependencies and creates an SPDX compatible SBOM |
Submitting a software bill of materials (SBOM) to the dependency submission API
To receive Dependabot alerts for dependencies that have known vulnerabilities, you can upload and submit the SBOM to the dependency submission API. To submit an SBOM to the dependency submission API, you can use one of the actions in the following table.
Tip
The SPDX Dependency Submission Action and the Anchore SBOM Action can be used to both generate the SBOM and submit it to the dependency submission API.
Action | Details | Maintained by GitHub |
---|---|---|
SPDX Dependency Submission Action | Uses Microsoft's SBOM Tool to create SPDX 2.2 compatible SBOMs with the supported ecosystems | |
Anchore SBOM Action | Uses Syft to create SPDX 2.2 compatible SBOMs with the supported ecosystems | |
SBOM Dependency Submission Action | Uploads a CycloneDX SBOM to the dependency submission API |
For example, the following SPDX Dependency Submission Action workflow calculates the dependencies for a repository, generates an exportable SBOM in SPDX 2.2 format, and submits it to the dependency submission API.
name: SBOM upload
on:
workflow_dispatch:
push:
branches: ["main"]
jobs:
SBOM-upload:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
permissions:
id-token: write
contents: write
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Generate SBOM
# generation command documentation: https://github.com/microsoft/sbom-tool#sbom-generation
run: |
curl -Lo $RUNNER_TEMP/sbom-tool https://github.com/microsoft/sbom-tool/releases/latest/download/sbom-tool-linux-x64
chmod +x $RUNNER_TEMP/sbom-tool
$RUNNER_TEMP/sbom-tool generate -b . -bc . -pn $ -pv 1.0.0 -ps OwnerName -nsb https://sbom.mycompany.com -V Verbose
- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
with:
name: sbom
path: _manifest/spdx_2.2
- name: SBOM upload
uses: advanced-security/[email protected]
with:
filePath: "_manifest/spdx_2.2/"