🧭 Roadmap: backlog triage, modernization, card syntax redesign & new components

[chrisjsewell]

Context

This is a tracking issue consolidating a full triage of the open backlog (56 issues, 14 PRs as of 2026-07), a code-level review of the extension, and a forward plan — to agree direction before implementation starts.

Groundwork already landed: v0.7.0 (Python 3.11–3.14, Sphinx 7–9) via #250/#255/#256, AGENTS.md (#251, #254), Sass @import→@use migration (#259), tab-set crash fix (#258).

Implementation briefs: each work item below has a detailed, self-contained brief (one PR each, with file:line references, steps, tests, and acceptance criteria) on the claude/sphinx-design-modernize-orr9g0 branch under briefs/, including an execution plan with parallelization tracks and a file-conflict matrix.

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1. Open PR triage

PR	Verdict	Notes
#205	✅ merged via #266 (81dbab8)	Verified: OCTICON_CSS in icons.py was dead code. Original fork branch couldn't re-trigger required checks (2024 runs too old to re-run), so re-created with authorship preserved
#262	✅ merged (03ccc10)	pre-commit autoupdate (ruff 0.15, mypy 2.1); [dependency-groups] pins synced in #267
#264	✅ merged via #270 (834eebe)	Button i18n fix, carried with authorship credit + crash hardening and i18n test coverage. Closed #96, #44, #263
#230	✅ merged via #283	Focus rings (a11y), carried onto the post-@use SCSS with author credit to gabalafou, as part of the a11y pass
#158	✅ closed	Button docs clarification; prose landed via #287 with authorship preserved
#287	✅ merged	Button docs clarification (buttons are styled links), carried from #158 with authorship preserved
#241	✅ closed	Superseded by the merged #276 (static-asset rework), which includes its HTML-only gating; credited in-thread
#237	✅ closed	.readthedocs.yml on main already has sphinx.configuration
#220	✅ closed	pyproject already allows myst-parser>=4,<6
#203	✅ closed	Superseded by the merged #272 (codecov-action v5 + fixing the dead upload condition)
#175	✅ closed	Superseded by #264/#270
#221 #225 #226 #227	✅ closed	Superseded by the merged #267 (pins refreshed + dependabot groups)
#268	✅ merged	dependabot: bump the actions group (4 GitHub Actions updates)
#269	✅ closed	dependabot python-deps group bump — superseded by #280, which folded the pin bumps in while keeping hook revs and dependency-group pins in sync
#280	✅ merged	pre-commit autoupdate + pin sync (hook revs and dependency-group pins kept in sync)

2. Open issue triage (by cluster)

i18n — ✅ buttons fixed

#44, #96, #263 closed by #270. Remaining: #234 (table content inside tabs missing from .pot) — separate extraction bug to investigate. Known gap documented in #270: button-ref text is absent from .pot extraction (std-domain xref resolution flattens explicit-title content before the gettext builder extracts); translation itself works.

Static files / builder lifecycle — ✅ fixed

#200, #235 closed by #276: static assets are now served via Sphinx's standard html_static_path mechanism (HTML-format builders only), nothing is written into outdir outside Sphinx's own copying, and the Sphinx floor moved to ≥7.2.

LaTeX output

#107 (dropdown → \subsubsection*), #218 (same for tabs), #179 (grids with images). #242 (fontawesome5 package clash) ✅ fixed in #285: sd_fontawesome_latex now also accepts "fontawesome5" (adding fontawesome5.sty and emitting \faIcon{...}), resolving the clash with themes that load it. The extension has essentially no LaTeX visitors; everything degrades via sphinxuseclass. Plan: a dedicated LaTeX pass — dropdown/tab-item → boxed environments (e.g. sphinxShadowBox-style), grids → sequential blocks (conditional fontawesome5 loading shipped in #285). CI now also compiles the docs PDF, which exercises the fontawesome5 icon path (see Phase 4).

Tabs

• Click+drag on tab causes synced tabs to go out of sync #46 ✅ fixed in 👌 Sync tabs via change events, open on URL hash, persist choice #284: synced tabs stay in sync when activated by click-and-drag or keyboard, by syncing on the radio input's change event rather than a label click (the root cause of the desync)
• Open tab when its :name: is used in URL #239 ✅ fixed in 👌 Sync tabs via change events, open on URL hash, persist choice #284: a URL fragment targeting a tab (e.g. page.html#tab-name), or an element inside a tab panel, now opens that tab — both on load and on hashchange
• Support sticky tab selection #103 ✅ fixed in 👌 Sync tabs via change events, open on URL hash, persist choice #284: tab selections now persist across browsing sessions via localStorage (a behaviour change from sessionStorage), and the storage-key prefix is configurable via the new sd_tabs_storage_prefix option (set it to an empty string to disable persistence)
• Include radio/label ID as part of tab-content div #30 ✅ fixed in ♿ Restore focus rings and wire tab ARIA relationships #283: each tab label now carries an aria-controls attribute referencing its panel id, establishing the programmatic relationship in the accessibility tree (note: this is not a full WAI-ARIA tabs pattern — assistive-technology support for aria-controls varies); landed as part of the a11y pass, carrying gabalafou's focus rings (Restore focus rings #230)
• Remaining: Scope of tabs is visually unclear #173 (tab scope CSS), Vertically-oriented tabs #219 (vertical orientation option), Tab-item is modifying .html files #238 (raw HTML inside tab-item), i18n: Table in the tab does not have translation #234 (i18n of table content inside tabs — tracked under i18n above)

Cards / grids

• comments inside a grid generate confusing warnings #86 ✅ closed by 🐛 Ignore comments/targets in component child validation #271 (+ anchor follow-up 🐛 Keep target anchors rendered in tab-set and tab-set-code #275)
• Multi-line content in dropdown has extra spacing on first line #40 ✅ fixed in 🐛 Stamp sd-card-text on direct paragraphs only, never replace classes #278: the dropdown transform no longer wipes user paragraph classes (inverted conditional), and sd-card-text is stamped on direct child paragraphs only (a CSS-child-selector alternative is noted as a follow-up for the card redesign)
• Bugs: Adding padding to a grid-card-item adds it to the sd-col div and not to sd-card div #26 (verified: grid-item-card applies :padding: to the outer sd-col div, and the plain card directive has no padding option at all), docutils hyperlink targets don't work for clickable cards #164 (docutils hyperlink targets as card links). Also: the card :link: option shared :ref: does not resolve autosectionlabel #110's whitespace-stripping bug (directives.uri in the option spec) ✅ fixed in 🐛 Fix card 🔗 whitespace stripping for ref targets #282 (card/grid-item-card :link: no longer strips whitespace from reference targets, and lowercases them for link-type: ref, matching the :ref: role)
• Enhancements worth accepting: Option to open clickable cards in new tab #170 (:link-newtab:), [Feature request] Add class-link option for cards #261 (:class-link:), CSS Class for Thumbnails/Images with fixed Height #152 (fixed-height image class), Add img-left and img-right to grid-item-card #211 (img-left/right), After screen resize or on mobile card-carousel looks bad #133/Card Carousel with Controls/Indicators #181 (carousel options/controls), ENH: Add download as clickable ref type for Cards #56, Changing colors on cards #157

Icons

• toctree skips an entry if its title begins with an inline icon directive #99/icons not shown correctly in rst toctree #117 ✅ fixed/documented in 🐛 Stop icon roles leaking SVG into toc labels and search #279: icon roles no longer leak SVG into toctree labels or the search index (new sd_icon node with empty astext()); icons not shown correctly in rst toctree #117 documented as a core-Sphinx limitation (toctree entry titles are plain text). Bonus: article-info icons regained their silently-dropped sd-pr-2 spacing class
• FontAwesome import interfering with Pro License #174 ✅ fixed in ✨ FontAwesome v6 roles, CDN config, fontawesome5 LaTeX support #285 (declarative FontAwesome loading via the new sd_fontawesome_source / sd_fontawesome_cdn_url options, the supported path for FA Pro kits) and ✨ Add sd_fontawesome_version for version-agnostic icon roles #288 (sd_fontawesome_version makes icon role names version-agnostic, so upgrading FontAwesome is a one-line conf.py change)
• Remaining: Material icons are padded slightly below by default #100 (material icon baseline), Option for fontawesome icons instead of octicon for dropdowns #233 (FA icons for dropdown markers — the sd_icon/role machinery from the FontAwesome work makes an :icon: option using style;name syntax a small follow-up)

Refs / links

• :ref: does not resolve autosectionlabel #110, Nested parse broken for button-ref but not button-link #228 ✅ fixed in 🐛 Fix button-ref target whitespace and nested content #281: button-ref no longer strips whitespace from targets (multi-word autosectionlabel labels resolve; ref-type: ref lowercases for :ref: parity), and rich/nested button content survives resolution instead of being flattened. (The card :link: follow-up for the same root cause ✅ landed in 🐛 Fix card 🔗 whitespace stripping for ref targets #282 — see cards cluster.)
• Remaining: Can't use anything for a button-link URL other than a string? #222 (URL from substitution)
• Known follow-up: a future :tooltip: option on button-ref would lose the reference title when the cross-reference resolves (pre-existing std-domain behaviour, documented during the tooltips work)

Docs-only quick wins — ✅ done

#172, #122, #184, #247 closed by #273. Remaining: #52 (indent MyST examples).

Close / answer — ✅ done

#6, #77, #80, #177, #165, #182 all closed with explanations; #260 ✅ done in #277 (public sphinx_design.testing module).

3. Modernization plan

1. Rework static-asset handling ✅ done in ♻️ Serve static assets via html_static_path #276 — update_css_js/update_css_links replaced by a single builder-inited hook registering sphinx_design/static/ on html_static_path + add_css_file/add_js_file (HTML-format builders only, served filenames unchanged); Sphinx floor bumped to ≥7.2 (native ?v= checksums), md5 branch and test-suite compat shims deleted.
2. CI coverage is silently dead ✅ fixed in 🧪 Fix dead codecov upload, modernize CI actions #272 (condition, codecov-action v5, action bumps, concurrency group). Follow-up idea from Phase 1 friction: run the no-myst tox env in CI and widen tox -e mypy to cover tests/, so all checker environments agree (several Phase 1 failures were only visible in envs CI doesn't run). Phase 2 addendum: the ~=7.0 CI rail resolves to 7.4.x, so the declared 7.2 floor is never CI-tested — three floor-only bugs were caught in local pinned-version runs; consider adding a sphinx==7.2.* matrix entry.
3. PyPI Trusted Publishing (OIDC) — replace the long-lived PYPI_KEY secret + flit publish with pypa/gh-action-pypi-publish under a pypi environment; attestations for free. Deferred for now — needs a one-time publisher registration on PyPI; revisit before the next release.
4. Drop the _compat.findall shim ✅ done in ♻️ Serve static assets via html_static_path #276 — all call sites now use node.findall(...) directly (note for downstream: the private helper is gone).
5. Packaging polish: bump Development Status :: 4 - Beta → 5 - Production/Stable; adopt PEP 639 license = "MIT"; refresh theme extras pins (done in ⬆️ Refresh dev/docs pins, group dependabot updates #267); plan a 1.0 once i18n + static-asset fixes land.
6. Frontend hygiene: a11y pass ✅ done in ♿ Restore focus rings and wire tab ARIA relationships #283 (focus rings carried from Restore focus rings #230, aria-controls wiring for Include radio/label ID as part of tab-content div #30); FA import opt-out ✅ done in ✨ FontAwesome v6 roles, CDN config, fontawesome5 LaTeX support #285 (sd_fontawesome_source / sd_fontawesome_cdn_url). The Sass toolchain slated for removal ✅ removed in ♻️ Drop Sass: plain CSS + a Python utility generator #290 — plain CSS plus a Python utility generator over declarative TOML data, runtime color-mix() hover shades (so user --sd-color-* overrides now propagate), a Baseline Widely Available support policy, and a rendered "Design: the CSS pipeline" page recording the invariants and their enforcing guards.
7. LaTeX degradation pass (see cluster above) — largest coherent pain cluster after i18n.
8. Testing gaps: no i18n/gettext tests (✅ added in 🐛 Keep buttons intact under gettext translation #270); JS behaviour (tab sync) still entirely untested — doctree regressions can't catch Click+drag on tab causes synced tabs to go out of sync #46/Tab-item is modifying .html files #238-class bugs, and the 🐛 Ignore comments/targets in component child validation #271 anchor bugs (fixed in 🐛 Keep target anchors rendered in tab-set and tab-set-code #275) were likewise invisible to doctree assertions. Add a minimal Playwright smoke test.
9. Declarative configuration ✅ landed in ♻️ Central declarative SdConfig dataclass #274: all sd_* options on a typed dataclass (modelled on myst-parser's MdParserConfig + validators), every field TOML-representable. New options — the tabs storage prefix (👌 Sync tabs via change events, open on URL hash, persist choice #284) and the FontAwesome source / CDN / version / LaTeX settings (✨ FontAwesome v6 roles, CDN config, fontawesome5 LaTeX support #285, ✨ Add sd_fontawesome_version for version-agnostic icon roles #288) — have since been added as fields.

4. Card directive: replace bespoke header/footer syntax with a pure parse

Today card (and grid-item-card via CardDirective.create_card) pre-processes its raw source lines: split_content regex-scans for the first ^{3,} line (header separator) and the last \+{3,} line (footer separator), slices the StringList into three chunks, and nested-parses each separately.

Problems with this:

• False positives in nested content — a +++ or ^^^ line inside a nested code-block/literal block (e.g. Jupytext cell markers, rST section underlines in examples) is treated as a separator. The "last occurrence" heuristic for footers mitigates but doesn't solve.
• Approximate source mapping — there's a literal TODO set proper lines in _create_component; error locations inside cards are off.
• Invisible to tooling — the separators aren't part of any parse; formatters, MyST linters/LSPs, and other renderers (including any future non-Python MyST implementation) can't understand card structure.
• add_card_child_classes then stamps sd-card-text onto all descendant paragraphs (✅ fixed in 🐛 Stamp sd-card-text on direct paragraphs only, never replace classes #278 — now direct children only).

Proposal: card-header / card-footer sub-directives + doctree hoisting

Adopt the same structural pattern as tab-set/tab-item:

• Register card-header and card-footer directives. Content of card is parsed with one ordinary nested_parse (pure rST/MyST — no raw-text surgery).
• After parsing, the card directive hoists any card-header/card-footer component children into their slots and wraps the remaining siblings in card-body. Pure doctree manipulation, correct line attribution for free.
• card-header/card-footer used outside a card warn, mirroring tab-item.

.. card:: Card title

   .. card-header::

      Header content

   Body content

   .. card-footer::

      Footer content

Ergonomics notes:

• Slightly more verbose than ^^^/+++, but explicit, unambiguous, and identical in rST and MyST (MyST users already nest fences for tab-set/tab-item).
• Optionally also add :header:/:footer: options accepting inline markup for the very common one-liner case — to decide.

Alternative considered (rejected): transition-based splitting

Parse the content and split on nodes.transition (the old sphinx-panels approach). Rejected because the two parsers disagree: ^^^^ (4+) parses as a transition in rST but +++ does not, while MyST tokenizes +++ as a block-break — so no single separator has consistent semantics across parsers, and transitions inside genuine card body content would be misinterpreted.

Deprecation pathway (not back-breaking)

1. vNext (0.8): both syntaxes work; docs/examples switch to the new sub-directives; ^^^/+++ remain the default-on legacy path.
2. Add config sd_card_legacy_separators (default True) and emit a once-per-document deprecation notice (subtype design.card_legacy, suppressible) when separators are used.
3. Publish a short migration guide (precedent: the sphinx-panels migration docs); the rewrite is mechanical enough for a python -m sphinx_design.migrate helper if wanted.
4. 1.0/2.0: flip the default off; remove one major later.

5. New components & directive improvements

New directives that fit the repo's CSS-first / minimal-JS philosophy:

• accordion — a group of dropdowns where opening one closes the others. Dropdowns already render as <details>/<summary>, and native HTML <details name="..."> gives exclusive-open behaviour with zero JS (Baseline 2024). Implementation is essentially a container directive assigning a shared name + CSS. Bootstrap-parity component that gets asked for regularly.
• steps / step — numbered procedure steps (install guides, tutorials), CSS counters only. One of the most-copied custom CSS snippets across Sphinx sites.
• aside (Aside boxes #97) — floated call-out box with text wrap-around; CSS-only, long-standing request.
• tooltip — either a role or a :tooltip: option on badges/buttons (Add tooltip for badges #81) ✅ done in ✨ Add tooltip suffix syntax to badge roles #286: badge roles accept a trailing ; tooltip suffix, rendered as a native HTML title tooltip on all bdg-* families (for the link/ref badges the suffix applies only after the explicit text <target> form, since semicolons are valid in URLs and reference targets; a literal ; in badge text is escaped as \;). Documented limitation: a literal \; in a bare (non-explicit) MyST link/ref badge target is not normalized. Config-defined custom badge roles are a planned follow-up (see Phase 3).

Improvements to existing components (no new directives): vertical tab orientation (#219), carousel controls via CSS scroll-snap (#181, #133), card img-left/right (#211), dropdown FA icon option (#233).

Considered and decided out of scope: menu-style dropdowns / nav widgets (#165, closed) — interactive navigation rather than content components; better served by themes.

6. Suggested sequencing

• Phase 0 — PR hygiene ✅ complete ([pre-commit.ci] pre-commit autoupdate #262, ♻️ Remove unused constants #266, ⬆️ Refresh dev/docs pins, group dependabot updates #267 merged; 8 PRs closed; issue sweep done)
• Phase 1 — bugs & infra ✅ complete (6 landed; trusted publishing consciously deferred):
  • declarative config foundation (♻️ Central declarative SdConfig dataclass #274, 70cf79b)
  • button i18n: make button text translatable #264 carried by 🐛 Keep buttons intact under gettext translation #270 (834eebe) — closed internationalization is not working for buttons #96, i18n: translating button-ref label results in loss of CSS classes #44, Buttons cannot be rendered correctly if the content is translated by Gettext #263
  • CI codecov fix + action modernization (🧪 Fix dead codecov upload, modernize CI actions #272, 5f41b8e)
  • quick win comments inside a grid generate confusing warnings #86 (🐛 Ignore comments/targets in component child validation #271, aa59d89) + anchor follow-up (🐛 Keep target anchors rendered in tab-set and tab-set-code #275, 9f62c7d — a retrospective review caught two rendered-anchor bugs in 🐛 Ignore comments/targets in component child validation #271)
  • docs quick wins Documentation for the sizing CSS classes is incorrect #172/better way to set img src file for an avatar? #122/Documentation and examples #184/Document how to include query arguments when linking to tabs #247 (📚 Fix sizing classes, grid rows, tab links, MyST prereqs #273, ce1e0a9)
  • static-asset rework (♻️ Serve static assets via html_static_path #276, 1bfd79d) — closed _sphinx_design_static directory in _build/latex #200/Missing build directory leads to builder-inited error #235, superseded Limit copying _sphinx_design_static to HTML based builders #241; Sphinx floor now ≥7.2
  • PyPI trusted publishing (brief 06) — deferred: needs a one-time publisher registration on PyPI; revisit before the next release
• Phase 2 — a11y & frontend ✅ complete:
  • public testing module (✨ Add public sphinx_design.testing helpers #277) — closed Provide normalize_doctree_xml via sphinx_design.testing #260
  • card/dropdown sd-card-text fixes (🐛 Stamp sd-card-text on direct paragraphs only, never replace classes #278) — closed Multi-line content in dropdown has extra spacing on first line #40
  • icon toc/search leak fix (🐛 Stop icon roles leaking SVG into toc labels and search #279) — closed toctree skips an entry if its title begins with an inline icon directive #99, icons not shown correctly in rst toctree #117
  • button-ref target + rich-content fixes (🐛 Fix button-ref target whitespace and nested content #281) — closed :ref: does not resolve autosectionlabel #110, Nested parse broken for button-ref but not button-link #228
  • a11y pass (♿ Restore focus rings and wire tab ARIA relationships #283) — focus rings carried from Restore focus rings #230, aria-controls wired (Include radio/label ID as part of tab-content div #30)
  • tabs JS (👌 Sync tabs via change events, open on URL hash, persist choice #284) — Click+drag on tab causes synced tabs to go out of sync #46, Open tab when its :name: is used in URL #239, Support sticky tab selection #103
  • FontAwesome modernization (✨ FontAwesome v6 roles, CDN config, fontawesome5 LaTeX support #285) + follow-up (✨ Add sd_fontawesome_version for version-agnostic icon roles #288) — FontAwesome import interfering with Pro License #174, Latex build broken in Sphinx 8 #242
  • badge tooltips (✨ Add tooltip suffix syntax to badge roles #286) — Add tooltip for badges #81
  • card :link: whitespace fix (🐛 Fix card 🔗 whitespace stripping for ref targets #282) — completes :ref: does not resolve autosectionlabel #110
  • button docs clarification (Clarify the meaning of button in the docs #158) landed via 📚 Clarify that buttons are styled links #287, authorship preserved
  • the sass-pin bump is superseded by Phase 2.5 below
• Phase 2.5 — CSS toolchain ✅ complete in ♻️ Drop Sass: plain CSS + a Python utility generator #290: Sass/Node dropped for plain CSS + a Python utility generator over declarative TOML; runtime color-mix() hover shades; 163 dead vendor prefixes purged; Baseline support policy. The migration was proven rule-set and cascade-order equivalent to the old stylesheet, and the build fails loudly on unregistered files, malformed tokens, or a stale/unparsable artifact — rationale and invariants in the new "Design: the CSS pipeline" docs page. Phase 3 styles are authored in this system.
• Phase 3 — card redesign & new components: §4 pure-parse cards with deprecation path; accordion; steps; aside; card options (Option to open clickable cards in new tab #170/[Feature request] Add class-link option for cards #261/CSS Class for Thumbnails/Images with fixed Height #152/Adding padding to a grid-card-item adds it to the sd-col div and not to sd-card div #26); custom badge roles via config (sd_custom_roles — generalizes sd_custom_directives to roles, with baked tooltips)
• Phase 4 — LaTeX pass & JS testing: make latex translates the dropdown title into a \subsubsection* #107/Tabs items shouldn't be rendered as they are in LaTeX output #218/Sphinx Grids with Image not compiling to Latex properly #179; Playwright harness. CI compiles the docs PDF ✅ done in 🔧 Compile the docs PDF in CI #289 (the fontawesome5 LaTeX icon path is exercised on every PR; TeX Live pinned to 2025 until the Malformed colorrows behavior with TexLive 2026 sphinx-doc/sphinx#14465 fix ships in Sphinx 9.1.1)
• Design docs for the settled architecture (configuration principles, syntax portability, static assets / the 1.0 API surface, testing strategy) — extends ♻️ Drop Sass: plain CSS + a Python utility generator #290's design-page pattern; best written after Phase 3 (brief 27)
• Phase 5 — 1.0: Dev Status stable, PEP 639, backlog re-sweep

Feedback welcome on any of the verdicts above — in particular §4 (card syntax) and which of §5 to green-light.

[chrisjsewell]

Phase 0 progress (checklist in the description updated):

• Merged: [pre-commit.ci] pre-commit autoupdate #262 (pre-commit autoupdate)
• Closed as obsolete/superseded, each with an explanatory comment: ⬆️ Bump codecov/codecov-action from 3 to 4 #203, ⬆️ Update myst-parser requirement from <4,>=2 to >=2,<5 #220, ⬆️ Update furo requirement from ~=2024.7.18 to >=2024.7.18,<2024.9.0 #221, ⬆️ Update pydata-sphinx-theme requirement from ~=0.15.2 to >=0.15.2,<0.17.0 #225, ⬆️ Update pre-commit requirement from <4,>=3 to >=3,<5 #226, ⬆️ Update sphinx-rtd-theme requirement from ~=2.0 to >=2,<4 #227 (dependabot), Fix missing required RTD configuration key #237, 🐛 FIX: i18n of buttons #175 (with thanks to the authors)
• refactor: Remove unused constants #205: the fork branch couldn't re-trigger the now-required status checks (2024 runs are too old to re-run), so the change is carried by ♻️ Remove unused constants #266 with @ftnext's commit authorship preserved — merging once CI is green

Remaining in Phase 0: the dev-pins refresh PR (+ dependabot groups, + syncing the [dependency-groups] mypy/ruff pins) and the issue close/answer sweep.

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