Getting Started with OSQAr

If you’re new to OSQAr, this page gets you from zero to your first auditable evidence shipment in about five minutes.

What OSQAr is

OSQAr is a documentation-first framework for producing, verifying, and integrating auditable evidence shipments for safety/compliance work.

Think of it as “CI for traceability”: you write structured requirements and architecture in reStructuredText, link them together with sphinx-needs, run verification checks, and package everything into an integrity-protected shipment that an integrator or auditor can verify independently.

One command to ship:

osqar shipment prepare --project . --archive

This builds your docs, runs traceability checks, generates checksums, and creates a ZIP archive — all in one shot.

Install

OSQAr is a Python package. Install it once:

pipx install osqar
osqar --help

Build your first shipment

Scaffold a project, write one requirement, build:

# 1. Create a new C project
osqar new --language c --name hello_safety --destination .

# 2. Build the documentation with traceability
cd hello_safety
osqar build-docs

# 3. Open it in your browser
osqar open-docs

That’s it — you have rendered documentation with a traceability graph, a needs.json export, and PlantUML diagram support.

For a full end-to-end run including test execution and evidence reports, check out the reference examples:

cd examples/python_hello_world
./build-and-test.sh
osqar shipment prepare --project . --archive

Where to go next

By role:

• Supplier’s Guide — produce auditable evidence shipments for a component

• Integrator’s Guide — verify, intake, and integrate received shipments

• Integrating Verification into CI — wire OSQAr into GitHub Actions or your CI pipeline

In depth:

• Using the OSQAr Boilerplate — comprehensive guide: mental model, terms, copy/paste workflow recipes

• Setting Up A Project From Scratch — scaffold a new project or migrate an existing one

• CLI Reference — full per-command reference (all flags, exit codes, examples)

Real-world demonstration:

• OSQAr-cJSON — an ISO 26262 SEooC qualification attempt of the cJSON library using OSQAr, targeting ASIL D, with CI-driven evidence shipments and 88% statement coverage.