Doorstop Requirements Management for VS Code

Manage, view and navigate Doorstop requirements without leaving VS Code. Every Doorstop command is available where you need it: in the explorer, in the editor and on a visual canvas.

Quick Start

1. Install the Python extension and select a Python ≥ 3.9 environment
2. Open a git folder, with or without an existing Doorstop project
3. Accept the offer to install doorstop-vscode-server into that environment
4. Open the Doorstop view in the side bar - or Create Document to start

Features

Explorer

All documents and items in the side bar.

• Items ordered by level, one list per document
• Add, Derive, Review, Link and Clear Suspect per item
• Disable/enable a document with the eye button on its row (adds/removes Doorstop's .doorstop.skip; disabling also disables child documents); disabled documents are not validated or modified, which speeds things up
• Commands view: Create, Reorder, Import, Export, Publish
• Generate Status Report: Mermaid charts of items, problems, changes

Document View

Edit a whole document as one markdown file - no YAML.

• Open as document on a document, section or filter result
• Ctrl+S writes only changed items, through Doorstop
• Deletions ask first; broken blocks get a quick fix
• + New item below inserts items in place
• Review, Derive, Link, problems and F12 work inline
• Show extra header fields via doorstop.documentView.fields

Canvas

Place requirements on a canvas and work with them visually.

• Add, create linked and remove items
• Create and remove links
• Ghost preview of every linked item
• Grid or hierarchical auto layout
• Doorstop: New Diagram creates one; *.doorstop.json reopens it

Problems & Quick Fixes

Doorstop's own validation, inline at the affected field.

• Do Review and Clear Suspect Link(s) via Ctrl+.
• Checks in the background on save; Refresh re-checks
• The eye button in the tree view cycles Automatic / On demand / Off (doorstop.problemReporting)

Navigation & Traceability

• F12 jumps to a linked item, Shift+F12 lists references
• Call hierarchy traces items up- and downstream

Editor Integration

• CodeLens: derive a downstream requirement in one click
• IntelliSense: autocomplete links, recent items first
• Hover: preview any linked item

Filter Notebooks

Query items with YAML filters, like Obsidian Bases. Run a cell, get a table.

• Groups: and:, or:, not:, hasChild:, hasParent:
• Operators: == != < <= > >=, .contains(), .startsWith(), .isEmpty(), .isNotEmpty()
• Works on built-in and custom attributes; levels as strings
• order: [status, owner] picks the table columns
• Open as document edits the matched items
• Doorstop: New Filter Notebook starts with a cheat sheet

Publish

• HTML, LaTeX and PDF, per document or all at once
• Traceability matrix includes cross-document links
• Same output in CI - see Publish as PDF

Settings

Requirements

• VS Code ≥ 1.75 with the Python extension
• Python ≥ 3.9 with doorstop-vscode-server (installed on request)
• Node.js ≥ 18 - only for PDF publishing

Links

Changelog · Issues · License