OLTS — Open Lifecycle Traceability Standard
Make lifecycle relationships explicit, version-controlled, reviewable, and automation-ready. OLTS connects requirements, tests, evidence, decisions, artifacts, and release readiness — without a new ALM platform, database, UI, or vendor workflow.
Why OLTS exists
Most teams already produce lifecycle knowledge. The problem is that it's scattered across issue trackers, documents, pull requests, CI logs, test reports, and release checklists — and the relationships between it stay implicit until someone has to reconstruct them under pressure. OLTS gives teams a shared way to make those relationships explicit and inspectable.
What it looks like
A single OLTS-compatible record can connect a requirement to the test that verifies it and the decision that explains it:
id: APP-SR-00014
type: SR
title: Operator can revoke an API token
verified_by:
- APP-VT-00221
explained_by:
- APP-ADR-00007The lifecycle chain, made explicit:
What OLTS provides
Tool-neutral by design
OLTS works alongside GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Azure DevOps, OpenSpec, CI/CD, Markdown, YAML, CSV, JSON, and MBSE workflows. It's not a replacement for existing tools — it's a thin, portable layer that helps them agree on lifecycle meaning.
It also sits alongside existing standards: use ReqIF to exchange requirements, OSLC to connect live systems, SPDX for supply-chain metadata — and OLTS to keep lifecycle relationships explicit and reviewable right in the repo.
Start small. Mature over time.
Built for automation, accountable to people
Automation can flag missing links, malformed records, and stale evidence. AI assistants can propose traceability updates. But OLTS keeps one boundary firm: humans approve lifecycle truth through normal review. As teams adopt more AI-assisted development, lifecycle context needs to get more explicit, not less.
What OLTS is — and is not
OLTS is not
- A required platform
- A database
- A UI
- An ALM replacement
- AI-generated truth
OLTS is
- A standard
- Repo-native
- Reviewable
- Tool-neutral
- Incrementally adoptable
Get started
- Read the overview.
- Review the minimal example.
- Add one record file and one relationship file in
docs/olts/and review it in a pull request. - Grow toward L2 and beyond when it earns its place.
OLTS is open and evolving — open to contribution
OLTS is an open standard, developed in the open — your feedback shapes where it goes next. We'd value input from systems engineers, software architects, DevOps and platform teams, QA and validation leads, security and compliance, product managers, and open-source maintainers. Open an issue or start a discussion.
Aetherion Core publishes OLTS as an open standard for lifecycle-aware engineering. Future Aetherion Core software may support the broader lifecycle-traceability ecosystem. OLTS itself is open, public, and tool-neutral.