Where to trigger a scan #
There are two places:
From the Repositories page #
Each repository card has a Run Scan button at the bottom. Click it and the scan starts immediately.
If the card shows Review Stack & Scan instead, it means the repository has never been scanned. Same outcome — click it to start the first scan.
From inside a repository #
Open any repository to land on its Overview tab. The top-right of the Overview shows Run Scan beside the repository name. Click it.
Both buttons trigger the same thing — pick whichever is closer to where you are.
What happens while a scan runs #
A scan is actually two operations chained together:
- Auto-discovery (~30 seconds) — Norma reads your repository structure to detect any new languages or frameworks added since the last scan. The button shows Discovering….
- Scan (1–5 minutes) — the scanners actually run. The button shows Scanning….
You don’t need to be on the page for this to finish. The scan runs server-side; closing the tab or navigating away doesn’t stop it.
In the repository while it runs #
- Overview tab — if there’s a previous score, it stays visible with a note: “Score will update after current scan.” If this is the first scan, you’ll see “Your Production Ready Score will appear here when the scan completes.”
- Issues tab — previous issues stay visible with a banner: “New scan in progress — results will update automatically.” First-time scans show a progress indicator instead.
- Coverage tab — fully usable. You can see the detected stack and rules while the scan runs.
When the scan completes and you’re still on the page, the UI updates in place — the button goes back to Run Scan, the score and issues refresh, and the Issues tab gets a small notification badge for any new findings.
If you navigate away #
The scan continues in the background. When it finishes, you’ll see a toast notification at the bottom-right of the app:
Scan completed for [repo-name] — N issues found
Click the toast to jump to the repository’s Issues tab. The Repositories card also updates with the new last-scan timestamp and SUCCESS/FAILED chip.
Quota and rate limits #
Your tier limits how many scans you can run per week:
- Free — 3 scans per week.
- Pro — higher (see Tiers and quotas).
The weekly counter resets every Monday. When you hit the limit, the Run Scan button is disabled with a tooltip explaining the limit and a link to upgrade.
There’s no per-repository limit — you can spend all your weekly scans on a single repo if you want.
If a scan fails #
Some scans fail — usually because:
- The repository was made private or deleted on the provider. Re-authorise Norma on the provider’s side or remove the repo from the workspace.
- The branch was deleted or renamed. Open the repository settings, point Norma at an existing branch, and try again.
- The scan engine crashed on a malformed file. Click Run Scan again. If it fails twice, contact support — the error message includes a trace ID you can reference.
A failed scan does not consume your weekly quota — only successful scans count.
When a scan fails, the previous successful scan’s data (score, issues, coverage) remains intact. You’re always looking at the most recent successful results until a new scan succeeds.
Tips #
- Re-scan after every meaningful change rather than on every commit. The scan reads the latest code on your default branch — running it five times in a minute won’t tell you anything new.
- Watch the trend over time. The Execution History view shows every scan you’ve ever run on a repository. Useful for catching slow drift in code quality.
- Don’t worry about leaving the page. Scans always finish in the background; the toast will find you.
Related #
- Scans overview — what a scan is, what it produces, what it doesn’t do.
- Reading results — once your scan finishes, what to look at.
- Production Ready Score — how to interpret the score that comes out.
- Tiers and quotas — the exact weekly scan limit for your plan.
