Requiem

Requiem is a plain-text requirements management tool. It is a spiritual successor to Doorstop, but aims to-

• be much, much faster
• support multiple parents per requirement
• integrate with existing plain-text documentation tools such as Sphinx and MdBook.

This project is in its early stages, and is not yet ready for production use. It is currently being developed as a personal project, but contributions are welcome.

A note on naming:

The name of the package is requirements-manager, but the name of this project is Requiem (a contraction). The tool is invoked on the command line as req.

Features

• Manage requirements, specifications, and other documents in plain text (Markdown with YAML frontmatter)
• Link documents together to form a directed acyclic graph (DAG)
• Support multiple parent requirements per document
• Detect cycles in the graph and report them
• Trigger reviews when parent requirements are changed (suspect link detection via fingerprinting)
• Human-readable IDs (HRIDs) stored in document titles for Sphinx/MdBook compatibility
• Flexible directory organization (filename-based or path-based with namespaces)
• Template system for new requirements
• Path diagnostics and validation
• Generate coverage reports
• Import and export requirements in standard formats

File Format

Requirements are stored as Markdown files with YAML frontmatter. The HRID (Human-Readable ID) appears as the first token in the document's title, making requirements compatible with Sphinx and MdBook:

---
_version: '1'
uuid: 12345678-1234-5678-1234-567812345678
created: 2025-01-01T12:00:00Z
parents:
- uuid: parent-uuid-here
  fingerprint: sha256-hash-of-parent-content
  hrid: USR-001
---
# SYS-001 Authentication Service

## Statement

The system shall provide an authentication service...

Key features:

• HRID in title: First token of the first heading (e.g., # USR-001 Title)
• UUID: Immutable identifier for internal linking
• Fingerprinting: SHA256 hashes detect when parent requirements change
• Multiple parents: Requirements can trace to multiple parent requirements

Documentation

For comprehensive documentation, visit the Requiem documentation site.

Installation

cargo install requirements-manager

Cli

The most up-to-date documentation for the command line interface can be found by running:

req --help

Quick start:

# Initialize a new requirements repository
mkdir my-requirements && cd my-requirements
req init

# Add a couple of user requirements
req add USR --title "User Login" --body "Users shall be able to log in"
# Creates USR-001.md with HRID in the title: # USR-001 User Login

req add USR --title "Password Reset" --body "Users shall be able to reset passwords"
# Creates USR-002.md

# Add a system requirement that implements a user requirement
req add SYS --parent USR-001 --title "Authentication Service"
# Creates SYS-001.md with parent link to USR-001

# Link an existing requirement to a parent
req link SYS-001 USR-002

# Check for suspect links (parent requirements that have changed)
req check

# Accept and update suspect links after review
req accept SYS-001 USR-001

# Validate that files are in the correct locations
req diagnose paths

# Clean up outdated parent HRIDs after moving requirements
req clean

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