Set up Insights: associating Snyk Open Source, Code, and Container Projects

After you have set up insights, Snyk can set up the required linking for the chosen application.

To prioritize your Snyk Code and Snyk Open Source vulnerabilities, Snyk needs to understand the relationships between those imported Snyk Projects and the Container Project. Snyk uses the relationships between these Projects as a proxy to understand the composition of the container image.

The Set up Insights UI displays a variety of asset types, including but not limited to:

• Repository assets

• Packages

• Container images

• Scanned artifacts

These assets are directly linked to the ones displayed on the Snyk Inventory view.

For more details regarding supported assets, you can navigate to the Asset and Issue pages.

The container image is the build artifact that is deployed and running on your Kubernetes cluster, so Snyk can map your application from its source code to its deployed state by understanding the following:

• The link between the Source Code and Open Source Dependencies and the image.

• What images are deployed to Kubernetes, and how are they configured.

Mapping your application

Use Project tags to link Projects

Add Snyk Project tags to all the Projects used by your application to link these Projects together and allow Snyk to represent the whole application that you are testing.

To associate two Projects together, add the exact same tag to both Projects. For example, add the same tag to your Snyk Open Source Projects and Snyk Container Project if they are related to each other.

See the examples at the end of this section.

Requirements for Project tags

• The same tag must be applied to the container image and Code or Open Source Projects,

• The tag must follow the specified format,

• The Projects do not have to be in the same Snyk Organization to be mapped but must be in the same Snyk Group,

Project tags

Examples of Project tags

Single repo to a single image

In this example, a single repository contains your package.json, which is built into an image called image-A.

Example: single repo to single image

To map these associations, you would have the following tags set up:

Location	Asset	Snyk Project Location	Tag(s)	Notes
github.com/my-team/front-end	package.json	Snyk Org: my-team Project name: package.json	component=pkg:github/my-team/front-end@main	The same tag is applied to both sides
	Built container image called image-A	Snyk Org: my-team Project name: image-A	component=pkg:github/my-team/front-end@main

Multiple repos to a single image

Example: multiple repos to single image

For this scenario, there are two contributing repositories.

There is a front-end repository containing the package.json scanned by Snyk Open Source and a back-end repository containing go code scanned by Snyk Code.

To map these associations, you would have the following tags set up:

Location	Asset	Snyk Project Location	Tag(s)	Notes
github.com/my-team/front-end	package.json	Snyk Org: my-team Project name: package.json	component=pkg:github/my-team/front-end@main
github.com/my-team/back-end	Go source code	Snyk Org: my-team Project name: Code	component=pkg:github/my-team/back-end@main
	Built container image called image-A	Snyk Org: my-team Project name: image-A	component=pkg:github/my-team/front-end@main component=pkg:github/my-team/back-end@main	The image has two tags applied, as there are two upstream dependencies which have different tags. You can apply multiple tags to an image.

Monorepo to many images

Example: monorepo to multiple images

In this example, the application team is using a monorepo approach. The contents of the repository are built into different container images as they may be run separately.

Here, we need to further differentiate the tags by scoping them more accurately.

Location	Asset	Snyk Project Location	Tag(s)
github.com/my-team/service	package.json	Snyk Org: my-team Project name: package.json	component=pkg:github/my-team/service/front-end@main	The tag is further scoped by specifying /front-end at the end
	Built container image called my-app-frontend:latest	Snyk Org: my-team Project name: my-app-frontend:latest	component=pkg:github/my-team/service/front-end@main

Location	Asset	Snyk Project Location	Tag(s)	Notes
github.com/my-team/service	Go source code	Snyk Org: my-team Project name: Code	component=pkg:github/my-team/service/back-end@main	The tag is further scoped by specifying /back-end at the end
	Built container image called my-app-backend:latest	Snyk Org: my-team Project name: my-app-backend:latest	component=pkg:github/my-team/service/back-end@main

Tags application

Project Tags can be applied as follows:

Product	Method	Project Source
Snyk Code	API UI	For projects created by Git Import
Snyk Open Source	API UI CLI	For projects created by Git Import CLI Monitor
Snyk Container	API UI CLI	For projects created by Git Import CLI Monitor Container Registry Integration

Snyk recommends applying the tags through the API in order to automate the process. For more information, see the endpoint Add a tag to a project.

UI example for Project tags

UI example for Project tags

CLI Example

snyk monitor --project-tags=component=pkg:github/my-team/back-end@main

API Example

See the Project Update documentation.

Example:

 "tags": [
    {
      "key": "component",
      "value": "pkg:github/my-team/back-end@main"
    }
  ],

To ensure you have set up your Kubernetes Connector properly, navigate to the Set up Insights tab on the Insights page and check the Image composition section to view the data Insights has access to.