Change Impact analysis tool #535

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1. aschemmel-tech

   added a parent issue on Jan 22, 2026

   • EPIC: Define and Align Tools with Process Requirements #520
2. github-project-automation

   added this to PRC - Process Development Communityon Jan 22, 2026
3. aschemmel-tech

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   issue type on Jan 22, 2026
4. Chidananda-Swamy

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   Chidananda-Swamy

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   Chidananda-Swamy

   on Feb 25, 2026
5. anmittag

   moved this to Backlog in PRC - Process Development Communityon Mar 12, 2026
6. arnoox commented on Mar 13, 2026

   

   arnoox

   on Mar 13, 2026

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   Preview of Versioned Links in Sphinx-Needs

   The Sphinx-Needs maintainers have been actively working on this feature. Here is a concrete preview of how it will look and feel from a user perspective.

   "Versioned links" allows to attach a filter expression or a hash to a link, so Sphinx-Needs can verify at build time that the target need still satisfies your expectation, e.g. that it hasn't changed since it was reviewed.

   ---

   Option A: Manual versioning with a version field

   1. Configure the field in ubproject.toml / conf.py:

   [needs.fields.version]
   schema.type = "integer"   # or "string" / "float"
   nullable = false           # every need must carry a version

   2. Set a version on your needs:

   .. req:: My Requirement
      :id: REQ-001
      :version: 42

   3. Link to a specific version:

   .. spec:: My Specification
      :id: SPEC-001
      :links: REQ-001[version==42]

   At build time, Sphinx-Needs checks that REQ-001 currently has version=42. If the requirement was bumped to version: 43, the build reports a broken constrained link.

   Note: later semantic versioning could be supported

   ---

   Option B: Automatic hash-based versioning

   For projects that want zero-maintenance pinning, a built-in hash dynamic function will compute a fingerprint of the need's content automatically:

   [needs.fields.hash]
   default = "[[hash(id, title, description)]]"
   fixed = true             # cannot be overridden per-need
   function_priority = 1000 # runs last, after all other fields are resolved

   Linking by hash:

   .. spec:: My Specification
      :id: SPEC-001
      :links: REQ-001[hash=="a3f5c2d1"]

   The hash is recomputed on every build. If REQ-001 changes (even a typo), the hash changes and the constrained link fails, giving a precise "the thing I linked to has changed" signal, but this could also get annoying ;-)

   ---

   Syntax overview

   The new link constraint syntax is ADDRESS[<filter expression>], using the same filter/query syntax already familiar to Sphinx-Needs users (field=="value", field>5, and / or, etc.):

   :links: REQ-001[version==42]
   :links: REQ-001[version>=40 and status=="accepted"]
   :links: REQ-001[hash=="a3f5c2d1"]

   Mixed usage with existing link syntaxes is fully supported:

   .. req:: My Requirement
      :id: REQ-002
      :links:
        REQ-001[version==42],
        <<alias: OTHER-REQ-003>>,
        [[dynamic_func()]]

   ---

   Note: field names are fully configurable

   version and hash are just the names used in the examples above, they are regular Sphinx-Needs fields and can be named anything. Projects that prefer shorter link syntax could use single-letter names:

   [needs.fields.v]
   schema.type = "integer"
   
   [needs.fields.h]
   default = "[[hash(id, title, content)]]"
   fixed = true

   Which then allows very compact links:

   :links: REQ-001[v==42]
   :links: REQ-001[h=="a3f5c2d1"]

   There is also the idea of introducing a shorthand field configuration to make the common cases even less verbose to set up. Instead of writing out the full field config, something like:

   [needs.fields.version]
   shorthand = "v"
7. aschemmel-tech

   removed a parent issue on Jun 8, 2026

   • EPIC: Define and Align Tools with Process Requirements #520
8. aschemmel-tech

   added a parent issue on Jun 8, 2026

   • Requirements Engineering ML3 #664
9. aschemmel-tech

   added a sub-issue on Jun 26, 2026

   • PoC: Change Impact Report #723
10. aschemmel-tech commented on Oct 12, 2026

    

    aschemmel-tech

    on Oct 12, 2026

    ContributorAuthor

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    realized with versioned links, aligned with @masc2023, documented in #827
11. aschemmel-tech

    closed this as completedon Oct 12, 2026