Sonatype Lifecycle

Sonatype Lifecycle (formerly Nexus Lifecycle) is an enterprise software composition analysis platform that embeds security throughout the software development lifecycle.

Named a Visionary in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Security Testing, it combines the industry’s most comprehensive component intelligence database with AI-powered remediation and automated policy enforcement across development, build, and release stages.

What is Sonatype Lifecycle?

Sonatype Lifecycle provides deep visibility into open-source component risk, backed by the Sonatype Intelligence database that tracks over 140 million components across major ecosystems.

Unlike scanners that only check public CVE databases, Sonatype’s security research team proactively identifies vulnerabilities, often before CVE assignment.

The platform integrates at every stage of development: IDE plugins warn developers before adding risky dependencies, repository firewalls block vulnerable components at download time, and CI/CD integrations enforce policies at build and release.

This shift-left approach catches issues when they are cheapest to fix.

Key Features

Sonatype Intelligence Database

Sonatype maintains one of the most comprehensive component intelligence databases, tracking vulnerabilities, license risks, and quality issues across Maven, npm, PyPI, NuGet, Go, and more.

Security researchers identify new threats daily, often disclosing vulnerabilities before public CVE publication.

Policy Management Engine

Define granular policies based on vulnerability severity, license type, component age, and organizational risk tolerance.

Policies enforce different standards for development vs. production, allow exceptions with approval workflows, and auto-fail builds that violate critical thresholds.

AI-Powered Remediation

Sonatype’s AI recommends optimal upgrade paths considering transitive dependencies, breaking changes, and available patches.

Rather than simply flagging “upgrade to latest,” it identifies the minimal safe upgrade that addresses vulnerabilities while minimizing compatibility risk.

Repository Firewall

The firewall component prevents risky packages from entering your artifact repository.

When developers attempt to download a known-malicious or policy-violating component, the firewall blocks the request and suggests alternatives.

This prevents vulnerable components from ever reaching your codebase.

IDE Integration

Plugins for IntelliJ, VS Code, Eclipse, and Visual Studio display component risk in real-time as developers add dependencies.

Color-coded indicators show vulnerability counts and license risks directly in the dependency declaration.

SBOM Management

Lifecycle generates and tracks SBOMs (Software Bill of Materials) in CycloneDX and SPDX formats.

SBOMs update automatically as components change, maintaining an accurate inventory for compliance and incident response.

Installation

Sonatype Lifecycle is a cloud or self-hosted platform.

For evaluation:

# Docker-based evaluation deployment
docker run -d -p 8070:8070 sonatype/nexus-iq-server:latest

# Access at http://localhost:8070
# Default credentials available in documentation

Install the CLI for local scanning:

# Download Nexus IQ CLI
curl -O https://download.sonatype.com/clm/scanner/nexus-iq-cli-latest.jar

# Scan a Java project
java -jar nexus-iq-cli-latest.jar \
  -i build \
  -s http://localhost:8070 \
  -a admin:admin123 \
  -t build \
  my-application ./target/

# Scan npm project
java -jar nexus-iq-cli-latest.jar \
  -i build \
  -s http://localhost:8070 \
  -t build \
  my-npm-app ./

IDE Integration

Install plugins for immediate developer feedback:

IntelliJ IDEA

1. Go to Preferences > Plugins > Marketplace
2. Search for “Sonatype Nexus IQ”
3. Install and restart
4. Configure server URL and credentials in Preferences > Sonatype

VS Code

# Install from marketplace
code --install-extension sonatype.vscode-iq-plugin

CI/CD Integration

GitHub Actions

name: Sonatype Lifecycle Scan
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  sonatype-scan:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Build project
        run: ./gradlew build

      - name: Sonatype Lifecycle Scan
        uses: sonatype/sonatype-github-action@v1
        with:
          iq-server-url: ${{ secrets.IQ_SERVER_URL }}
          username: ${{ secrets.IQ_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.IQ_PASSWORD }}
          application-id: my-application
          stage: Build
          result-file: results.json

GitLab CI

sonatype-scan:
  image: sonatype/nexus-iq-cli:latest
  stage: security
  script:
    - java -jar /opt/nexus-iq-cli.jar
        -i ${IQ_APPLICATION_ID}
        -s ${IQ_SERVER_URL}
        -a ${IQ_USERNAME}:${IQ_PASSWORD}
        -t build
        -r results.json
        .
  artifacts:
    reports:
      security: results.json

Jenkins Pipeline

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Build') {
            steps {
                sh './gradlew build'
            }
        }
        stage('Sonatype Analysis') {
            steps {
                nexusPolicyEvaluation(
                    iqApplication: 'my-application',
                    iqStage: 'build',
                    iqScanPatterns: [[scanPattern: '**/target/*.jar']]
                )
            }
        }
    }
}

Maven Integration

Add Sonatype scanning to Maven builds:

<!-- pom.xml -->
<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>com.sonatype.clm</groupId>
            <artifactId>clm-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.47.0</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>evaluate</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <phase>verify</phase>
                </execution>
            </executions>
            <configuration>
                <serverUrl>${env.IQ_SERVER_URL}</serverUrl>
                <applicationId>my-app</applicationId>
                <stage>build</stage>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

When to Use Sonatype Lifecycle

Sonatype Lifecycle suits enterprises requiring comprehensive SCA with policy enforcement across the SDLC.

Its deep integration with Nexus Repository Manager creates a unified platform for artifact management and security, particularly valuable for Java and Maven-heavy organizations.

Choose Sonatype Lifecycle when you need proactive vulnerability intelligence ahead of public CVE disclosure, granular policy management for compliance, or the repository firewall to block risky components at download time.

The AI-powered remediation reduces manual triage and accelerates vulnerability resolution.

For lighter-weight open-source alternatives, consider OWASP Dependency-Check, Grype, or Trivy.

Teams already using Snyk or Mend may find those platforms offer comparable enterprise SCA.

Sonatype’s strength lies in its intelligence database depth and tight artifact repository integration.