RAC v0.8.11 - the "why it matters" release

[tcballard]

The "why it matters" release - every finding RAC reports now carries the reason it matters, in every place you might read it. And new users get their editor sorted in the first minute.

pip install --upgrade 'requirements-as-code[explorer]'
rac explorer

Every finding explains itself, everywhere

Explorer's recommendations have always told you why a finding matters - "a declared reference does not resolve, leaving traceability incomplete" - but that explanation lived only in Explorer. Run rac review --json in CI and you got the finding without the why.

Now the impact sentence belongs to RAC itself. Every finding from rac review carries an impact field - in the JSON, available to your scripts and pipelines, and rendered in Explorer from the very same source. One sentence, identical everywhere, maintained in one place.

Why you care: if you pipe rac review --json into a dashboard, a bot, or a PR comment, you can now show your team why each finding deserves attention - not just that it exists. And the addition is purely additive: every existing field is untouched, so nothing you've built on the contract changes.

Your editor, from the first minute

e has always handed an artifact to your own editor. New in this release: the first time you launch Explorer, onboarding asks. One line, prefilled from your environment - press Enter to keep what $VISUAL/$EDITOR already says, type a command (code, vim, whatever you use) to set a preference, or Esc to skip entirely. Asked once, never again; /settings can change it any time.

Also in this release (since v0.8.9)

This tag carries v0.8.10, and it's a substantial one:

• The sidebar tells the truth (v0.8.10): by default it now mirrors your repository's actual directory structure - roadmaps/ opens to reveal the folders inside it, nested exactly as on disk, with artifact counts on every directory. Your place survives reloads at any depth, and opening an artifact reveals it along its real path. Prefer the old views? Grouping cycles folders, type, and flat in /settings.
• Create without leaving (v0.8.10): /new decision path/to/adr.md previews the canonical template, y confirms, and the ID is minted by the same machinery as rac new - nothing ever overwrites, and the new artifact opens ready for e.
• The portfolio in numbers (v0.8.10): /stats opens a dashboard - per-type validity, requirement and quality totals, decision status breakdowns, relationship counts - the same facts rac stats reports.
• Browsing by type got better (v0.8.10): /browse decision now lists every decision in the filterable results panel, whatever grouping the sidebar is in.

Upgrading

With pip:

pip install --upgrade 'requirements-as-code[explorer]'
rac explorer

With uv:

uv tool upgrade requirements-as-code
rac explorer

(First time with uv, or if the upgrade can't see the new version yet: uv tool install --reinstall --refresh 'requirements-as-code[explorer]'.)

Everything is backward-compatible: existing files, commands, scripts, and preference files keep working exactly as before. The rac review --json change is additive - new impact key, same schema_version, no existing field touched.

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This discussion was created from the release RAC v0.8.11 - the "why it matters" release.