ALCops for Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps pipeline task for downloading ALCops code analyzers for AL Language of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Quick Start

steps:
  - task: ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers@1
    displayName: ALCops - Download Analyzers
    inputs:
      tfm: "net8.0" # Or use the detectUsing parameter instead of static value
      outputPath: "$(Build.SourcesDirectory)/.alcops"

Usage Examples

Auto-detect from BC Artifact URL

Pass a BC artifact URL and the TFM is detected automatically:

steps:
  - task: ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers@1
    displayName: ALCops - Download Analyzers
    inputs:
      detectUsing: "$(bcArtifactUrl)"

Auto-detect from NuGet DevTools version

steps:
  - task: ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers@1
    name: alcops
    inputs:
      detectUsing: "latest" # Latest or preview for beta/prelease releases
      detectFrom: "nuget-devtools" # Optional: Defaults to BC DevTools from NuGet, set to 'marketplace' for AL Language extension from VS Code Marketplace

Auto-detect from VS Marketplace version

Force a specific detection source with detectFrom:

steps:
  - task: ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers@1
    name: alcops
    inputs:
      detectUsing: "current"
      detectFrom: "marketplace"

Auto-detect from Compiler Path

steps:
  - task: ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers@1
    name: alcops
    inputs:
      detectUsing: "$(Agent.ToolsDirectory)/bc-devtools/bin"

Specific ALCops version

steps:
  - task: ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers@1
    name: alcops
    inputs:
      tfm: "net8.0"
      version: "1.2.3"

Using Outputs

steps:
  - task: ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers@1
    name: alcops
    inputs:
      detectUsing: "latest"

  - script: echo "Downloaded $(alcops.version) with TFM $(alcops.tfm)"

  - script: |
      alc.exe /project:"$(Build.SourcesDirectory)" \
        /analyzer:"$(alcops.files)"

Task Reference

ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers

Download ALCops code analyzers with automatic TFM detection.

Inputs

Input	Default	Description
detectUsing	—	Input for TFM detection: BC artifact URL, local compiler path, NuGet DevTools version/channel, or VS Marketplace version. Smart routing determines the source.
detectFrom	(auto)	Force a detection source: bc-artifact, marketplace, nuget-devtools, compiler-path
tfm	—	Explicit target framework: net8.0, netstandard2.1, net10.0. Skips detection.
version	latest	ALCops version: latest, preview, or specific (e.g., 1.2.3)
outputPath	$(Build.SourcesDirectory)/.alcops	Where to place extracted analyzer DLLs

Note: Either detectUsing or tfm must be provided.

Outputs

Variable	Description
version	Downloaded ALCops version
tfm	Detected or specified target framework moniker
outputDir	Full path to extracted analyzer DLLs directory
files	Semicolon-separated list of analyzer DLL paths

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 20
• npm

Commands

cd azure-devops-extension
npm ci                     # Install dependencies
npm run lint               # Lint (eslint shared/ tasks/*/src/)
npm test                   # Run tests (vitest)
npm run build              # TypeScript compilation (tsc -p tsconfig.json)
npm run bundle             # esbuild bundling (5 task bundles)
npm run package            # Bundle + create .vsix extension package

Architecture

The extension contains 5 tasks under tasks/. Only ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers is actively maintained; the legacy tasks remain for backward compatibility.

tasks/
  download/                   # ALCopsDownloadAnalyzers — single-step detect + download
  install-analyzers/          # ALCopsInstallAnalyzers — deprecated
  detect-tfm-bc-artifact/     # ALCopsDetectTfmFromBCArtifact — deprecated
  detect-tfm-nuget-devtools/  # ALCopsDetectTfmFromNuGetDevTools — deprecated
  detect-tfm-marketplace/     # ALCopsDetectTfmFromMarketplace — deprecated
shared/                       # Shared modules (logger, input logging)

Each task is bundled into a single file via esbuild (tasks/{name}/dist/index.js), including all dependencies. All core logic lives in the @alcops/core package.

Links

• ALCops Website
• GitHub Repository
• Report Issues
• Discussions