Integrating SonarLint into IntelliJ IDEA for Pre‑Commit Code Quality Checks

1. Goal

Integrate Sonar code inspection into IDEA so that code can be checked before committing rather than after submission.

Sonar can evaluate code quality from seven dimensions, with developers typically focusing on the first five:

Non‑compliance with coding standards – enforced via tools such as PMD, Checkstyle, FindBugs.

Potential defects – detected using the same rule engines.

Poor complexity distribution – high complexity in files, classes, or methods makes them hard to modify and understand; without automated unit tests, changes may require extensive regression testing.

Duplication – copy‑paste code reduces quality; Sonar highlights heavily duplicated sections.

Insufficient or excessive comments – lack of comments harms readability, especially with staff turnover; too many comments waste developers' time.

Lack of unit tests – Sonar can easily report test coverage.

Poor design – Sonar can detect cycles, visualize package/class dependencies, enforce custom architecture rules, manage third‑party JARs, and assess coupling using metrics like LCOM4.

2. Prerequisites

SonarQube is already set up, and a JDK 8 environment is used (JDK 7 also works).

3. Install Plugin

In IDEA go to Settings → Plugins, search for “SonarLint”, install it, and restart the IDE.

4. Configure Project

1) Configure Server

Open the server configuration dialog, add the URL of the Sonar platform (usually an internal address).

2) Choose Project

After the server information is saved, the available Sonar projects are listed.

Once configured, the Sonar extension appears in the lower‑left corner of IDEA.

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