Sheriff

Sheriff-MCP

Sheriff is an MCP server that helps AI agents efficiently fix static analysis issues from SARIF reports.

Documentation | Installation | Tool Reference

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Why Sheriff?

AI agents struggle with large static analysis reports:

• Context overload - 100+ issues overwhelm context windows
• Lost progress - Work is lost on context compaction or session restart
• Inefficient navigation - No batching means jumping between files repeatedly

Sheriff solves this by acting as a work queue manager:

• Intelligent batching - Issues grouped by file for efficient fixing
• Persistent progress - State survives compaction, restarts, and agent switches
• Scope filtering - Focus on specific rules, severities, or file patterns
• Compact responses - Minimal context usage with abbreviated field names

Supported Static Analysis Tools

Sheriff works with any tool that produces SARIF output:

Tool	Language	SARIF Command
Qodana	Java/Kotlin/JS/Python	qodana scan
Semgrep	Multi-language	semgrep --sarif -o results.sarif
ESLint	JavaScript/TypeScript	eslint --format @microsoft/sarif
CodeQL	Multi-language	Built-in SARIF output
SpotBugs	Java	spotbugs -sarif
Bandit	Python	bandit -f sarif
Checkov	IaC	checkov -o sarif
Trivy	Container/IaC	trivy --format sarif
SonarQube	Multi-language	Built-in SARIF export

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Quick Start

1. Install

Download sheriff-mcp-1.0.2-all.jar from Releases.

docker pull ghcr.io/ryansmith4/sheriff-mcp:latest

Clients that support the MCP Registry can install directly by name: io.github.ryansmith4/sheriff-mcp

See the Installation Guide for full details.

2. Configure Your MCP Client

Add Sheriff to your MCP client (Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT Desktop, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sheriff": {
      "command": "java",
      "args": ["-jar", "/path/to/sheriff-mcp-1.0.2-all.jar", "start"]
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sheriff": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-v", ".:/data", "ghcr.io/ryansmith4/sheriff-mcp:latest"]
    }
  }
}

See the Agent Setup Guide for client-specific instructions and recommended agent instructions.

3. Use It

1. Run static analysis     →  qodana scan
2. Load into Sheriff       →  sheriff load target="results.sarif"
3. Get next file's issues  →  sheriff next
4. Fix all issues in file  →  [edit the code]
5. Mark as done            →  sheriff done fps=[...] status="fixed"
6. Repeat 3-5              →  until remaining = 0

Sheriff exposes a single sheriff tool with 7 actions: load, next, done, progress, summary, reopen, and export. See the Tool Reference for full documentation.

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Example Session

User: "Fix all ConstantValue issues in my codebase"

Agent: sheriff load target="build/qodana/qodana.sarif.json"
       → 136 total issues, 22 ConstantValue, 15 unused...

Agent: sheriff next scope={rule: "ConstantValue"}
       → 3 issues in Service.java with code snippets

Agent: [reads Service.java, fixes all 3 issues]

Agent: sheriff done fps=["88d32cab35478753", "ab1c2d3e12345678", "f9e8d7c6a1b2c3d4"] status="fixed"
       → 3 marked fixed, 19 remaining

       ... continues until remaining = 0

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Security

All release artifacts are signed with Sigstore for supply chain security.

Verify JAR:

VERSION=1.0.2
cosign verify-blob \
  --signature sheriff-mcp-${VERSION}-all.jar.sig \
  --certificate sheriff-mcp-${VERSION}-all.jar.pem \
  --certificate-identity-regexp "https://github.com/ryansmith4/sheriff-mcp" \
  --certificate-oidc-issuer "https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com" \
  sheriff-mcp-${VERSION}-all.jar

Verify Docker image:

cosign verify ghcr.io/ryansmith4/sheriff-mcp:latest \
  --certificate-oidc-issuer=https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com \
  --certificate-identity-regexp="github.com/ryansmith4/sheriff-mcp"

See SECURITY.md for our security policy.

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Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

Apache License 2.0 - see LICENSE