About

Semmle Inc. is a code-analysis platform founded in December 2006 in Oxford, England. It was acquired by GitHub (itself owned by Microsoft) on 18 September 2019 for an undisclosed amount. Semmle's core offerings include its LGTM technology, which automates code review, tracks developer contributions, and flags software security issues. The LGTM platform leverages the CodeQL query engine (formerly QL) to perform semantic analysis on software code bases. GitHub's strategic aim is to integrate Semmle technology to provide continuous vulnerability detection services. Notably, in November 2019, the use of CodeQL was made free for research and open source. CodeQL, which either shares a direct pedigree with .QL (dot-que-ell) or is an evolution of similar technology, derives from the Datalog family tree.