Read the Docs, a software-as-a-service documentation hosting platform, uses Sphinx to automatically build documentation updates that are pushed to GitHub.

A mini-tutorial / working example / cheatsheet / link-collection to get you started documenting Python code using the Sphinx documentation system.

:raises: AttributeError, KeyError """ return 0 def public_fn_without_docstring(): return True def _private_fn_with_docstring(foo, bar='baz', foobarbas=None): """I have a docstring, but won't be imported if you just use ``:members:``. """ return None class MyPublicClass(object): """We use this as a public class example class. You never call this class before calling :func:`public_fn_with_sphinxy_docstring`. ..

Sphinx can automatically extract API documentation directly from Python modules, using for instance the :autofunction: directive. ... API docs are generated for this example Python module - they use docstrings directly in the documentation, notice how this shows up in the rendered documentation.

A repo with a minimal Sphinx example for Python documentation. - melissawm/minimalsphinx

A simple example and cheat sheet for using Sphinx to document small Python modules.

A lightweight example directive to make it easy to demonstrate code / results. ... A small Sphinx extension to create examples of source markup and the result of rendering it in your documentation.

February 12, 2026 - On a blank sphinx project, there is only index.rst serving as a landing page. It is customable but I did not feel the need to do it, so it won’t be covered in this article. In the index.rst, you can see a reST directive : toctree. This directive serves to find your .rst files. For a trivial example:

This directory contains a number of examples used in the tutorials. These are intended to be increasingly complex to demonstrate the various features of Sphinx, but should aim to be as complicated as necessary but no more.

Now that you have added some files and content, let’s make a first build of the docs. A build is started with the sphinx-build program: ... where sourcedir is the source directory, and outputdir is the directory in which you want to place the built documentation. The -M option selects a builder; in this example Sphinx will build HTML files.

A small Sphinx extension to create examples of source markup and the result of rendering it in your documentation.

August 5, 2026 - Two sphinx heads flank the queen, representing her twin sons. — Jessica Lynne, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Feb.

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Sphinx Themes Gallery · Curated and maintained by @pradyunsg and @shirou · Browse themes → GitHub · Alabaster default click image to see more · Read the Docs click image to see more · Furo click image to see more · Shibuya click image to see more · Book click image to see more · PyData ...

March 31, 2023 - It provides a Sphinx backend that allows generating professionally typeset PDF documents (Machiels).

Now would be a good time to introduce the toctree. One of the main concepts in Sphinx is that it allows multiple pages to be combined into a cohesive hierarchy. The toctree directive is a fundamental part of this structure. The above example will output a Table of Contents in the page where it occurs.

Benefit from an active community, with numerous resources, tutorials, forums, and examples. ... See below for how to navigate Sphinx’s documentation.

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0 · The scene is flanked by two sphinxes which are separated from it by a band of lotus blossoms and palmettes.

This workshop will walk you through the steps of using the Sphinx tool for documentation generation for a Python API, hosting them on GitHub pages and automatically creating new versions on code updates. Accompanying the instructions there is this example project where you can find some sample code to serve as a base for the rest of the workshop.