Getting Started

ALCops is a community-driven collection of code analyzers for the AL programming language of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Whether you are setting up ALCops for the first time or integrating it into an existing workflow, the guides below will help you get started.

New to ALCops? Start with the Quick Start to see what the analyzers catch before diving into setup.

Setup

Pick the approach that matches your development workflow:

• Visual Studio Code — install the extension and get diagnostics in your editor (recommended)
• Command Line — use alc.exe with analyzer DLLs for scripts and automation

CI/CD Pipelines

Run ALCops as part of your build to catch issues before they reach production:

• AL-Go for GitHub — built-in support for custom code analyzers
• Azure DevOps — the ALCops pipeline task from the marketplace extension, ALOps, and custom pipelines

AI Tooling

• MCP Server — give Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor and other assistants ALCops code fixes and Microsoft’s AL tooling through the Model Context Protocol

Configuration

After installation, see Configuration to learn how to enable, disable, or adjust individual rules using .ruleset.json, alcops.json and #pragma directives.

Migrating from LinterCop?

If you are coming from BusinessCentral.LinterCop, see LinterCop Migration for a complete diagnostic mapping between LinterCop and ALCops rules.