Stripping uppercase prefixes during validation

[a-zw]

Description

File: src/extensions/score_metamodel/checks/check_options.py, function validate_links()

validate_links validates link targets by stripping a namespace prefix from the target ID and then re.match-ing the remainder against the allowed link-type names. This only works when the type name happens to be a literal prefix of the need ID — which is true for S-CORE's built-in metamodel but not guaranteed for downstream metamodels.

Analysis results

Root Cause — _remove_namespace_prefix_ strips uppercase prefixes:

def _remove_namespace_prefix_(word: str) -> str:
    return re.sub(r"^[A-Z]+_", "", word)

This strips leading uppercase letters followed by an underscore:

• P_FOO → FOO
• BB_EXAMPLE → EXAMPLE
• stkh_req__foo → stkh_req__foo (unchanged — starts with lowercase)

Root Cause — the hidden assumption: When a link constraint uses a type-name string like "product", the regex becomes literally product. re.match("product", value) only succeeds if value starts with "product".

For S-CORE's own metamodel, this works because IDs use lowercase prefixes (stkh_req__, etc.) → the prefix stripper leaves them unchanged, and the type name (stkh_req) is a literal prefix of the ID (stkh_req__something).

But this is a coincidence of S-CORE's naming conventions. Any downstream metamodel with different ID conventions breaks:

Scenario	ID example	Type name	Stripped ID	Regex	Match?
S-CORE built-in	stkh_req__foo	stkh_req	stkh_req__foo	stkh_req	✅
Uppercase prefix	P_FOO	product	FOO	product	❌
Different prefix scheme	my_product__foo	product	my_product__foo	product	❌

Solution

The prefix-stripping step (_remove_namespace_prefix_) should probably be removed — it is unnecessary and causes the mismatch. Instead, when allowed_values contains a plain string (a type name), resolve the target need's actual type/directive field and check membership in the allowed type-name set. Only fall back to regex matching when the constraint is an actual regex pattern (i.e., a dict with mandatory_options.id).

Error Occurrence Rate

Reproducible

How to reproduce

Extend metamodel with uppercase type names.

Supporting Information

No response

Classification

Minor

First Affected Release

not released (main)

Last Affected Release

not released (main)

Expected Fixed Release

before release (main)

Category

• Safety Relevant
• Security Relevant

[MaximilianSoerenPollak]

I think that prefix func was still in there from when we had each repo start with their own prefix if it came from external which always was an uppercase prefix.
So ye I agree, this can be removed.