Semgrep vs Hostile Review

Semgrep is a lightweight, open-source-first static analysis tool — write custom rules in YAML, catch patterns across 30+ languages, with Pro features for cross-file taint analysis and supply chain scanning. Think of it as grep for code, supercharged with security intelligence.

Hostile Review is an adversarial code audit — 108 specialized AI agents that assume your code is broken and prove where. Think of it as deploying a red division against your codebase before an attacker does.

• Developer-friendly rule authoring — write custom security rules in simple YAML, test them in a playground, share them with your team
• 6,000+ community rules — vibrant open-source registry updated days after new vulnerability disclosures, not months
• Cross-file taint analysis — Pro Engine tracks data flow across functions and files to find injection chains
• Supply chain reachability — doesn't just flag vulnerable dependencies, checks if the vulnerable code path is actually reachable (98% false positive reduction)
• Secrets validation — detects hardcoded credentials and actually checks if they're still valid
• Semgrep Assistant — AI-powered triage that learns from your team's decisions, auto-suppresses repeat false positives
• Open-source core — run it locally, integrate anywhere, no vendor lock-in on the base engine

• Finds what rules can't define — AI agents reason about your code's logic and context, catching vulnerabilities that no pattern can express
• 108-agent adversarial approach — each agent attacks from a different angle, then findings are deduplicated and consensus-ranked
• 14 review categories — goes far beyond security: performance, architecture, compliance (GDPR/HIPAA/PCI), AI security, accessibility, i18n, cloud infrastructure
• Business logic vulnerabilities — catches flaws in application logic that no pattern-based scanner can express as a rule
• Zero-day thinking — AI agents reason about novel attack vectors, not just known patterns from a rule database
• No per-seat pricing — one scan costs the same whether you have 2 developers or 200
• No rule maintenance — no YAML to write, no rules to keep updated. Agents reason from first principles

Semgrep finds what you can describe. If you can write a pattern for it, Semgrep will find every instance, fast, across your entire codebase. It's incredibly powerful for known vulnerability classes and enforcing team standards.

Hostile Review finds what you can't describe. AI agents reason about your code without predefined patterns. They find business logic flaws, novel attack vectors, and cross-system vulnerabilities that no rule can express — because nobody knew to write one yet.

Rules catch the known. Adversarial AI catches the unknown.