@rqml/core

The RQML engine — the dependency-clean library that every RQML surface (the rqml CLI, the @rqml/mcp server, the VS Code extension, and third-party tools) reuses, so there is one implementation of how RQML is parsed and checked (GOAL-REUSABLE-ENGINE).

Capabilities

• Parse / serialize — parse() turns a .rqml string into a typed model; serialize() writes it back. Round-trip preserves structure.
• Validate (@rqml/core/validate) — XSD validation via a libxml2 engine plus in-code referential integrity (id uniqueness, trace keyrefs) that the XSD alone does not enforce. Schema text is bundled from @rqml/schema, so validation is offline and deterministic (REQ-CORE-VALIDATE, REQ-CORE-NO-LLM).
• Lint — strictness-aware semantic checks (lint()).
• Trace — resolve trace edges, index declared ids, find dangling references.
• Coverage / gate — deterministic coverage, drift, and impact over the trace graph; approvalGate() flags implementation linked to non-approved requirements.
• Edit — appendTraceEdge/updateTraceEdge record trace links and setStatus transitions a requirement's status, all as safe textual edits.
• Export — document outline + Markdown (buildOutline/outlineToMarkdown, projectOutline to scope), and the traceability matrix (buildMatrix): one row per requirement with status, goals, code, tests, and coverage.

Entry points

import { parse, serialize, lint, resolveTrace, buildMatrix, projectOutline, setStatus, approvalGate } from "@rqml/core";
import { validate } from "@rqml/core/validate"; // separate entry: loads the XSD engine

The main entry never loads the validation engine, so consumers that only parse, lint, or trace stay lean. The . and ./validate entry points and the ESM output are a stable contract the VS Code extension depends on — keep them.

Boundaries

@rqml/core carries no CLI argument-parsing or MCP SDK dependency and invokes no language model (REQ-CORE-DEPS, REQ-CORE-NO-LLM); those live in the rqml CLI and @rqml/mcp. Target runtime is Node 18+ (CON-OFFLINE); the code avoids DOM globals so it remains portable, but the browser is not a supported target.

Provenance

This package is the former standalone rqml-core library, merged into the RQML monorepo and renamed @rqml/core. Its bundled XSD copies were removed in favor of the single canonical source in @rqml/schema. Core's requirements live in the root requirements.rqml, and the engine's design decisions are recorded in the root ADR set: ADR-0013 (runtime & packaging), ADR-0014 (typed model & round-trip), and ADR-0015 (outline & markdown), which consolidate the original project's ADRs.