reStructuredText (Sphinx) guidelines

Core rules

• Treat .rst as reStructuredText (not Markdown). Indentation and blank lines are semantic.
• Prefer Sphinx structure over .. include:: for navigation: use .. toctree:: so each page is a real document.
• Avoid tabs; use spaces.

Headings

• Underlines must be at least as long as the title text.
• Keep heading levels consistent within a file.

Example::

Title
=====

Section
-------

Lists

• For enumerated/bulleted lists, indent continuation paragraphs under the list item and add a blank line between items when they contain multiple paragraphs.

Example::

1. Item title

   Continuation paragraph (indented).

2. Next item

Inline markup

• Escape characters that trigger markup when they are literal.

• Prefer Sphinx roles for semantic markup:

  • Filenames: :file: (e.g. ``:file:`*.inp```).
  • Commands: :command:.
  • Environment variables: :envvar: (define them via .. envvar:: somewhere in the docs).

Common pitfall::

This breaks: CLEED *.res results file

Better::

Use :file:`*.res` results files

Links and references

• Labels must use the underscore form: .. _label_name:.

• Use ``:ref:`label_name``` for internal links.

• Use explicit links for emails/URLs:

  • mailto: for email links.
  • Full URLs for external links.

Example::

See :ref:`file_formats` or email `support <mailto:someone@example.com>`_.