NAME

       sphinx-apidoc - Sphinx API doc generator tool

SYNOPSIS

       sphinx-apidoc [OPTIONS] -o <OUTPUT_PATH> <MODULE_PATH> [EXCLUDE_PATTERN ...]

DESCRIPTION

       sphinx-apidoc  is  a  tool  for  automatic  generation  of  Sphinx  sources  that,  using  the autodoc <#
       module-sphinx.ext.autodoc> extension, document a whole package  in  the  style  of  other  automatic  API
       documentation tools.

       MODULE_PATH  is  the  path  to  a  Python package to document, and OUTPUT_PATH is the directory where the
       generated sources are placed. Any EXCLUDE_PATTERNs given  are  fnmatch-style  <https://docs.python.org/3/
       library/fnmatch.html> file and/or directory patterns that will be excluded from generation.

       Warning:
          sphinx-apidoc  generates  source  files  that  use  sphinx.ext.autodoc <#module-sphinx.ext.autodoc> to
          document all found modules.  If any modules have side effects on import, these  will  be  executed  by
          autodoc when sphinx-build is run.

          If  you document scripts (as opposed to library modules), make sure their main routine is protected by
          a if __name__ == '__main__' condition.

OPTIONS

       -o <OUTPUT_PATH>
              Directory to place the output files. If it does not exist, it is created.

       -q     Do not output anything on standard output, only write warnings and errors to standard error.

       -f, --force
              Force overwriting of any existing generated files.

       -l, --follow-links
              Follow symbolic links. Defaults to False.

       -n, --dry-run
              Do not create or remove any files.

       -s <suffix>
              Suffix for the source files generated. Defaults to rst.

       -d <MAXDEPTH>
              Maximum depth for the generated table of contents file. Defaults to 4.

       --tocfile
              Filename for a table of contents file. Defaults to modules.

       -T, --no-toc
              Do not create a table of contents file. Ignored when --full is provided.

       --remove-old
              Remove existing files in the output directory that are not created anymore.  Not  compatible  with
              --full.

       -F, --full
              Generate   a   full   Sphinx  project  (conf.py,  Makefile  etc.)  using  the  same  mechanism  as
              sphinx-quickstart.

       -e, --separate
              Put documentation for each module on its own page.

              Added in version 1.2.

       -E, --no-headings
              Do not create headings for the modules/packages. This is  useful,  for  example,  when  docstrings
              already contain headings.

       -P, --private
              Include "_private" modules.

              Added in version 1.2.

       --implicit-namespaces
              Without  this option, sphinx-apidoc searches sys.path </usr/share/doc/python3-doc/html/library/sys
              .html#sys.path> for Python packages containing __init__.py files, or single-file Python modules.

              This option instead uses PEP  420  <https://peps.python.org/pep-0420/>  implicit  namespaces  that
              allow  layouts  paths  such as foo/bar/module.py or foo/bar/baz/__init__.py (note that bar and foo
              are namespaces, not modules).

       -M, --module-first
              Put module documentation before submodule documentation.

       These options are used when --full is specified:

       -a     Append module_path to sys.path.

       -H <project>
              Sets the project name to put in generated files (see project <#confval-project>).

       -A <author>
              Sets the author name(s) to put in generated files (see copyright <#confval-copyright>).

       -V <version>
              Sets the project version to put in generated files (see version <#confval-version>).

       -R <release>
              Sets the project release to put in generated files (see release <#confval-release>).

       Project templating

       Added in version 2.2: Project templating options for sphinx-apidoc

       -t, --templatedir=TEMPLATEDIR
              Template directory for template files.  You can modify  the  templates  of  sphinx  project  files
              generated by apidoc.  Following Jinja2 template files are allowed:

              • module.rst.jinja

              • package.rst.jinja

              • toc.rst.jinja

              • root_doc.rst.jinja

              • conf.py.jinja

              • Makefile.jinja

              • Makefile.new.jinja

              • make.bat.jinja

              • make.bat.new.jinja

              In  detail,  please refer the system template files Sphinx provides.  (sphinx/templates/apidoc and
              sphinx/templates/quickstart)

ENVIRONMENT

       SPHINX_APIDOC_OPTIONS
              A comma-separated list of option  to  append  to  generated  automodule  directives.  Defaults  to
              members,undoc-members,show-inheritance.

SEE ALSO

       sphinx-build(1), sphinx-autogen(1)

Copyright

       2007-2025, the Sphinx developers

8.2.3                                             Dec 07, 2025                                  SPHINX-APIDOC(1)