Sphinx ubTrace Builder¶

The ubTrace builder generates an optimized build output from Sphinx, including documentation, configuration, and metric files.

A dedicated Sphinx builder named ubTrace builder is provided for this purpose.

Performance Note: The ubTrace builder is significantly faster than the standard HTML builder—up to 50% faster in some scenarios.

Installation & Configuration¶

Install `ubt_sphinx`¶

The ubTrace builder is provided by the Python package ubt_sphinx.

Note

The instructions below were tested with pip 24.0, uv 0.10.9, and rye 0.44.0 on Python 3.12.3.

Minimum required versions:

pip ≥ 6.0 (--extra-index-url support)
uv ≥ 0.4.23 ([[tool.uv.index]] with explicit = true and [tool.uv.sources])
rye ≥ 0.2.0 ([[tool.rye.sources]] support)

pip¶

pip install ubt_sphinx --extra-index-url https://pypi.useblocks.com

uv¶

Configure the useblocks index in your pyproject.toml with explicit pinning:

[[tool.uv.index]]
name = "useblocks"
url = "https://pypi.useblocks.com"
explicit = true

[tool.uv.sources]
ubt-sphinx = { index = "useblocks" }
ubt-runtime = { index = "useblocks" }

Then run:

uv add ubt_sphinx
uv sync

Note

The explicit = true flag ensures uv only fetches ubt_sphinx and ubt_runtime from the useblocks index. All other dependencies (e.g. kuzu) resolve from PyPI automatically. This prevents dependency confusion without needing --index-strategy unsafe-best-match.

rye¶

Configure the useblocks source in your pyproject.toml:

[[tool.rye.sources]]
name = "useblocks"
url = "https://pypi.useblocks.com"

Then run:

rye add ubt_sphinx
rye sync

Activate the builder by adding it to the extensions list in your conf.py file:

extensions = [
   # other extensions
   "ubt_sphinx"
]

For detailed configuration options, see the project options section in configuration.

Usage¶

Once installed and configured, you can build your documentation using the builder name ubtrace.

Example:

make ubtrace
# Or for more control:
sphinx-build -b ubtrace . _build/ubtrace

Output Structure¶

After building, the _build/ubtrace folder will contain the following structure:

_build/
└── ubtrace/
    └── MyCompany/
        └── MyProduct/
            └── version_x/
                ├── config/
                │    ├── ubtrace_global_context.json
                │    ├── ubtrace_project.toml
                │    └── ubtrace_search_index.json
                └── docs/
                    ├── html/
                    │    ├── index.html
                    │    └── ...
                    └── ubtrace/
                        ├── needs.json
                        └── ...

The configuration file ubtrace_project.toml contains settings that can be changed and extended using options from Configuration.

The output can be used directly by the ubTrace server. Integration details are described in Project Integration.

Note

It is important to keep the internal structure of _build/ubtrace unchanged. ubTrace requires the correct placement of files; otherwise, features like Search, Analysis, or even documentation delivery may not work properly.

Configuration¶

The ubTrace builder does not introduce its own configuration syntax.

It relies entirely on the configuration options provided by Sphinx and its HTML builder. For ubTrace-specific settings (organization, project name, theme options, etc.), see Configuration.

ubTrace compatibility¶

ubt_sphinx is versioned independently from the ubTrace platform, but the two are coupled by a data-format contract: ubt_sphinx writes the build artifacts (needs.json, the ubtrace output tree, configuration files, and per-document git history) that the ubTrace server ingests. A mismatched ubt_sphinx version can produce output that the server rejects, parses incorrectly, or treats as missing data.

For each ubTrace release we therefore publish a recommended ubt_sphinx version. Customers should pin to the recommended version in their CI pipeline.

As of today, ``ubt_sphinx 0.7.1`` is the recommended version for every supported ubTrace release. It is the latest reproducible-wheel build of the 0.7 line and produces output that all currently supported ubTrace servers (1.1.x through 1.3.0) can ingest.

Recommended `ubt_sphinx` version per ubTrace release¶
ubTrace release	Recommended `ubt_sphinx`	Notes
1.3.0	0.7.1	Native pairing — Sphinx 9 compatibility and the reproducible-wheel release of the 0.7 line.
1.2.x	0.7.1	Forward-compatible with the 1.2 server. Older 0.6.x builds still work but no longer receive fixes.
1.1.x	0.7.1	Forward-compatible with the 1.1 server. Older 0.6.x builds still work but no longer receive fixes.

Note

The data contract is designed to be forward-compatible: newer ubt_sphinx releases that don’t change the on-disk format can be used with older ubTrace servers. We update this table whenever a new ubt_sphinx release changes the recommendation for any supported ubTrace version.

Changelog¶

ubt_sphinx is versioned independently from the ubTrace platform. Releases are published on PyPI.

This changelog follows Keep a Changelog.

0.7.1 — 2026-05-01¶

Changed¶

Reproducible wheel builds: ubt_sphinx and ubt_runtime wheels are now byte-stable across rebuilds, so lockfile hash verification (uv sync, pip install --require-hashes) no longer breaks on republished releases.
Released as part of a coordinated ubt_runtime 0.6.0 line; pinning ubt_sphinx==0.7.1 resolves to the new, immutable runtime wheels.

0.7.0 — 2026-04-30¶

Added¶

Sphinx 9 compatibility (uv-driven test matrix).

Fixed¶

Minifier crashed with IsADirectoryError on the build output directory.

0.6.1 — 2026-04-10¶

Fixed¶

Replaced jsmin with rjsmin for offline bundle compatibility.

0.6.0 — 2026-03-27¶

Added¶

Traceability coverage pre-computation support.

Changed¶

Package status upgraded from Alpha to Beta.

Removed¶

KuzuDB integration — the deprecated ubtrace_build_kuzudb option and all Kuzu graph database code have been removed. Build output is now handled entirely by PostgreSQL + Elasticsearch on the server side.

0.5.0 — 2026-03-10¶

Added¶

RST content extraction pipeline producing document, section, and table-of-contents graph nodes with relationships.
Root index page automatically linked into the TOC tree.
Per-document git history (last edit timestamps, contributors, commit messages) captured during the build and embedded in the output.

Changed¶

ubt_sphinx is now versioned and released independently from the ubTrace platform.
Replaced cssutils with tinycss2 for CSS processing.
ubtrace_build_kuzudb default changed from True to False (KuzuDB output is deprecated and will be removed in a future release).
Git history is now collected per-document during the Sphinx write phase, improving parallel-build (-j) performance. Git info is stored inside each .fjson output file.

Fixed¶

Git collector and RST extraction now only run when the ubtrace builder is active, preventing unnecessary processing with other builders (e.g. html).
Suppressed duplicate warnings for missing html_favicon / html_logo when not configured.
Increased unique ID length for section and directory generation to avoid collisions in large projects.
Added missing bs4 dependency.

Removed¶

Unused dependencies sphinxcontrib-plantuml and typing-extensions.

0.4.0 — 2025-09-08¶

Added¶

Per-document git history collection: automatically captures last edit timestamps, contributors, commit messages, and URLs during the build.

Changed¶

Enhanced directory structure creation for build output.

0.3.2 — 2025-08-21¶

Initial public release.

Sphinx ubTrace Builder¶

Installation & Configuration¶

Install ubt_sphinx¶

pip¶

uv¶

rye¶

Usage¶

Output Structure¶

Configuration¶

ubTrace compatibility¶

Changelog¶

0.7.1 — 2026-05-01¶

Changed¶

0.7.0 — 2026-04-30¶

Added¶

Fixed¶

0.6.1 — 2026-04-10¶

Fixed¶

0.6.0 — 2026-03-27¶

Added¶

Changed¶

Removed¶

0.5.0 — 2026-03-10¶

Added¶

Changed¶

Fixed¶

Removed¶

0.4.0 — 2025-09-08¶

Added¶

Changed¶

0.3.2 — 2025-08-21¶

Install `ubt_sphinx`¶