When enabled, SpotBugs will run every time you modify a Java class within the project.

Enable or disable the “Run SpotBugs Automatically” checkbox.

You may customize how SpotBugs runs by opening the Properties dialog for a Java project, and choosing the “SpotBugs” property page. If you additionally configure the source code locations for the binaries, SpotBugs will also link the generated warnings to the right source files.

Having that, you can now right click the archive node in Package Explorer and select the option labeled “Spot Bugs”. Simply create an empty Java project and attach archives to the project classpath.

You can also run SpotBugs on existing java archives (jar, ear, zip, war etc). SpotBugs will run, and problem markers (displayed in source windows, and also in the Eclipse Problems view) will point to locations in your code which have been identified as potential instances of bug patterns. To get started, right click on a Java project in Package Explorer, and select the option labeled “Spot Bugs”.

Sts eclipse plugin