I contacted support and it turns out it hasn't been implemented.

I have created a feature request on their issue tracker:

https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/PY-14743

Update:

original feature request is marked as a duplicate of

https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/PY-27635

State: In progress

I want to link to other methods / functions / classes from some of the docstrings, but I cannot figure out how to do this.

You're correct that the reStructuredText documentation does not cover this, because it's not a feature of reStructuredText.

Likely you are (explicitly, or implicitly via some tool) using the Sphinx system – a superset of Docutils – to allow (among many other features) references between different docstrings.

Sphinx defines several Docstring “roles” (the :foo: before the backtick-quoted text) for different purposes:

• doc, a reference to an entire document.
• ref, an arbitrary cross-reference.
• … many others.

For specifically Python code, the “domain” py has its own specific set of roles for Python code docstrings:

• :py:mod:

  Reference a module; a dotted name may be used. This should also be used for package names.

• :py:func:

  Reference a Python function; dotted names may be used. The role text needs not include trailing parentheses to enhance readability; they will be added automatically by Sphinx if the add_function_parentheses config value is True (the default).

• :py:data:

  Reference a module-level variable.

• :py:const:

  Reference a “defined” constant. This may be a Python variable that is not intended to be changed.

• :py:class:

  Reference a class; a dotted name may be used.

• :py:meth:

  Reference a method of an object. The role text can include the type name and the method name; if it occurs within the description of a type, the type name can be omitted. A dotted name may be used.

• :py:attr:

  Reference a data attribute of an object.

• :py:exc:

  Reference an exception. A dotted name may be used.

• :py:obj:

  Reference an object of unspecified type.

The PyCharm support told me the following :

As PyCharm developer said: You cannot distinguish classes and instances in type hints. The name of a class in a type hint means that an instance of that class is expected. If your function accepts the class itself, your options are either not to use type hints at all or use the 'type' as a class name. Anyway, there won't be any useful code completion in these cases. See also https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/PY-11615.

The only way to specificate an argument is a class is to use :type arg: type, but the completion won't work well. There is no other way currently.

This seems to be a feature request with no current due date or version: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/PY-16760

EDIT: already Fixed

Here's how I managed to display class attributes in the Docstring in Pycharm 2020.3.3 (I use professional edition) :

class TestModel(models.Model):
    """
    A Test model to see the class attributes in the docstring

    Attributes:

    - :class:`str` name --> The name of the test object
    - :class:`datetime` created_at --> Date and time when the instance was created
    """
    name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

Note that without the Attributes: line, it won't work as expected.

And this is how it is shown in the quick documentation :

If you're using sphinx to generate your documentation

""" 

`here <url>`__

"""

in your docstrings should be parsed properly.