sphinx-adr 0.4.0

Sphinx extension to document Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)

sphinx-adr

A Sphinx extension for documenting Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) directly inside your Sphinx documentation.

Inspired by ablog (for the directive-based authoring model) and log4brains (for the timeline UI with status badges).

Features

• .. adr:: directive -- mark any Sphinx page as an ADR with structured metadata (id, status, date, authors, tags).
• .. adrlist:: directive -- generate a vertical timeline / decision log with filtering and sorting.
• Sidebar navigation -- compact timeline sidebar on ADR pages (ablog-style html_sidebars pattern).
• Status badges -- color-coded pills for Proposed, Accepted, Deprecated, and Superseded.
• ID badges -- teal monospace badge for each record's identifier, visually distinct from status and tags.
• Timeline layout -- vertical timeline with status-colored glowing dots, cards, excerpts, and tag pills.
• Works with any Sphinx theme -- tested with alabaster, pydata-sphinx-theme, and sphinx-book-theme.
• Dark mode support -- automatically adapts to light/dark mode on pydata-sphinx-theme, sphinx-book-theme, and furo.
• Incremental & parallel safe -- integrates cleanly with Sphinx's build system.

Quick start

1. Install

pip install sphinx-adr

2. Enable the extension

In your Sphinx conf.py:

extensions = ["sphinx_adr"]

# Path to ADR documents (default: "adr")
adr_path = "adr"

# Show the ADR sidebar only on ADR pages (ablog-style pattern)
html_sidebars = {
    "adr/*": ["adr_nav.html"],
}

3. Write an ADR

Create a file such as adr/0001-use-sphinx.rst:

ADR-0001: Use Sphinx for Documentation
=======================================

.. adr::
   :id: ADR-0001
   :status: Accepted
   :date: 2024-01-15
   :authors: Alice, Bob
   :tags: tooling, documentation

   We will use Sphinx as our primary documentation tool.

Context and Problem Statement
-----------------------------

We need a documentation system that supports multiple output formats,
is well-integrated with Python projects, and allows us to write
documentation alongside the code.

Decision Outcome
----------------

Chosen option: **Sphinx**, because it is the de-facto standard for
Python projects and has a rich extension ecosystem.

4. Create a decision log page

Architecture Decision Log
=========================

.. adrlist::

.. toctree::
   :hidden:

   0001-use-sphinx
   0002-adopt-adr-process

5. Build

sphinx-build -b html docs docs/_build/html

Directive reference

.. adr::

Marks the current page as an ADR. Place it near the top of the document, right after the title.

Option	Required	Description
:id:	yes	Unique identifier for the ADR, e.g. ADR-0001
:status:	yes	One of Proposed, Accepted, Deprecated, Superseded
:date:	no	Date string, e.g. 2024-01-15
:authors:	no	Comma-separated author names
:tags:	no	Comma-separated tags for categorisation
:superseded-by:	no	Docname of the ADR that supersedes this one (when status is Superseded)

The directive body is used as a short excerpt displayed in the timeline listing.

.. adrlist::

Generates a timeline-based listing of all ADRs in the project.

Option	Default	Description
:status:	(all)	Comma-separated statuses to include, e.g. Accepted, Proposed
:tags:	(all)	Comma-separated tags to filter by
:sort:	date-desc	Sort order: date-desc, date-asc, or status

Configuration

Config value	Default	Description
adr_path	"adr"	Directory containing ADR documents
adr_statuses	["Proposed", "Accepted", "Deprecated", "Superseded"]	Allowed status values

Sidebar setup (ablog-style)

The extension provides an adr_nav.html sidebar template. Use Sphinx's html_sidebars to control which pages display it:

# Show ADR sidebar only on pages under adr/
html_sidebars = {
    "adr/*": ["adr_nav.html"],
}

Regular pages keep their normal theme sidebar. This follows the same pattern as ablog.

Interactive controls

Timeline

• Hover on a timeline card to see an elevated shadow and glowing status dot.
• Click the title link to navigate to the full ADR document.
• Filter ADRs by status or tags using .. adrlist:: options.

Sidebar navigation

• Current page is highlighted with bold text and link color.
• Hover on any entry to see the title highlighted and dot glow.
• Each entry shows the ID badge, title, and status pill at a glance.

Theme compatibility

Theme	Light mode	Dark mode	Notes
alabaster	yes	--	Sphinx default, no dark mode
pydata-sphinx-theme	yes	yes	Toggle via navbar switcher
sphinx-book-theme	yes	yes	Built on pydata, same mechanism
furo	yes	yes	Via prefers-color-scheme

Development

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13+
• uv

Setup

git clone https://github.com/bngoy/sphinx-adr.git
cd sphinx-adr

# Install in development mode
uv sync --extra dev

Common commands

# Run tests
uv run pytest tests/ -v

# Lint and format
uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format .

# Build demo docs
uv run sphinx-build -b html docs docs/_build/html

# Build theme examples (requires examples extra)
uv sync --extra examples
uv run sphinx-build -b html examples/pydata-theme examples/pydata-theme/_build/html
uv run sphinx-build -b html examples/book-theme examples/book-theme/_build/html
uv run sphinx-build -b html examples/alabaster examples/alabaster/_build/html

Project structure

sphinx-adr/
├── VERSION                     # Single source of truth for package version
├── pyproject.toml              # Package metadata, build config, ruff config, uv scripts
├── sphinx_adr/
│   ├── __init__.py             # Extension setup, config values, version
│   ├── directives.py           # AdrDirective, AdrListDirective
│   ├── nodes.py                # Custom docutils nodes (adr_meta, adr_list)
│   ├── collector.py            # Metadata collection & timeline rendering
│   ├── templates/
│   │   └── adr_nav.html        # Sidebar navigation Jinja2 template
│   └── static/
│       └── sphinx_adr.css      # Timeline styling, status/ID badges, dark mode
├── docs/                       # Demo site (dogfoods the extension)
│   ├── conf.py
│   ├── index.rst
│   └── adr/                    # Sample ADRs
├── examples/                   # Theme-specific examples
│   ├── alabaster/
│   ├── pydata-theme/
│   └── book-theme/
├── tests/
│   ├── conftest.py             # make_project fixture
│   └── test_extension.py       # 7 tests
└── .github/workflows/
    ├── ci.yml                  # Lint + test on every push/PR
    ├── auto-tag.yml            # Tag repo from VERSION on PR merge
    └── release.yml             # Build and publish to PyPI on tag

License

Apache 2.0 -- see LICENSE.