[Vijaysir0hi]

Fixes #2403

Summary

When an external needs source declares a custom field named state, add_external_need previously stripped state from kwargs because it was listed alongside non-field metadata (docname, lineno, is_external).

In addition, because add_need declares state: RSTState | None = None in its signature, passing state as a keyword argument assigns it to that parameter rather than forwarding it in kwargs to generate_need.

Changes

1. Removed state from the fixed_key tuple in add_external_need.
2. In add_need, if state is not an RSTState (i.e. a custom field value passed for an external need), restore it to kwargs["state"], so generate_need receives and stores the field.
3. Added a regression test in tests/test_external.py verifying that an external need with state: "draft" preserves the field value in get_needs_view().

[chrisjsewell]

Thank you for picking this up, and for the test.

#2403 was fixed as part of #2406 (merged as 8bd37988a). That PR moved every way sphinx-needs creates a need onto one internal path that takes a need's fields as a mapping, never as keyword arguments. The external reader now uses that path, and add_external_need keeps a state that the project declares as a field. Because the fix came with that larger change, this PR is no longer needed, so I'm closing it.

Thanks again for the report-shaped test. It matched what we measured.