How to Automate Project Tagging with Project Tag for SonarQube™
February 10, 2026
Have you ever tried to automate project onboarding in SonarQube using tags? If you work with multiple projects, you know how challenging it can be to keep everything organized manually. SonarQube allows you to manage tags within the project space, but until now, creating new tags was only possible manually. This is where Project Tag for SonarQube™ comes in, bitegarden’s plugin that simplifies this process in an automated and efficient way.
Why automate project tagging
Manual tag management becomes complex when:
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You have hundreds of projects.
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You want to maintain a consistent tagging standard.
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You need to use project metadata during CI/CD analysis (for example, in Jenkins).
With Project Tag for SonarQube™, you only need to provide the tag as a command-line property, and the plugin will automatically create and assign the tag, preserving both system and custom tags.
Usage and configuration
1 - Specify the tag in your analysis
Add the following property to your SonarQube scanner:
-Dbitegarden.project.tag=yourtag
yourtag: replace it with the name of the tag you want to assign.
Make sure the characters comply with SonarQube™ rules: a-z, 0-9, ‘+’, ‘-‘, ‘#’, ‘.’.
The plugin will automatically capture this information and store it in SonarQube.
2 - Run the tagging process in administration
Once your projects have been analyzed using the command-line property:
Go to Administration → Configuration → Project Tag.
Run the process to tag all projects.
The plugin will assign the tag specified during analysis without removing existing tags. This means both system and custom tags will remain intact.
3 - CI/CD integration
If you already have project metadata available (for example, team name, project type, or client), you can use this data to automatically configure the tag during analysis in your CI/CD tool such as Jenkins, GitLab CI, or Azure DevOps. This ensures that each project has the correct tag as early as possible, without manual intervention.
Key benefits
Below are some of the key benefits of Project Tag for SonarQube™ Server:
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Full automation: no more manual tag creation.
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Consistency: all tags follow a standard defined by your analysis.
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CI/CD metadata compatibility: tags can be generated from dynamic pipeline properties.
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Security and maintainability: existing tags are not removed, only new ones are added.
With Project Tag for SonarQube™, automating the tagging of your projects is straightforward. Configure your tags via the command line, integrate them with your CI/CD pipeline, and let the plugin keep your projects organized and consistent. Here is the download link to try it in your instance.
bitegarden team
Helping companies to develop better software