Using sphinx-apidoc we get

We use the following command:

sphinx-apidoc -o docs/ mymodule/ -e

It generates:

docs/
├── modules.rst
├── mymodule.animals.chimp.rst
├── mymodule.animals.monke.rst
├── mymodule.animals.rst
├── mymodule.animals.special.catto.rst
├── mymodule.animals.special.doggo.rst
├── mymodule.animals.special.rst
├── mymodule.base.rst
├── mymodule.exceptions.rst
├── mymodule.fruits.mango.rst
├── mymodule.fruits.pear.rst
├── mymodule.fruits.rst
└── mymodule.rst

This is not very clean, obviously.

Using sphinx-nested-apidoc we get

We use the following command:

sphinx-nested-apidoc -o docs/ mymodule/

It generates:

docs/
├── modules.rst
└── mymodule/
    ├── animals/
    │   ├── chimp.rst
    │   ├── index.rst
    │   ├── monke.rst
    │   └── special/
    │       ├── catto.rst
    │       ├── doggo.rst
    │       └── index.rst
    ├── base.rst
    ├── exceptions.rst
    ├── fruits/
    │   ├── mango.rst
    │   ├── pear.rst
    │   └── index.rst
    └── index.rst

Looks clean!

Want to name the package something else?

sphinx-nested-apidoc --package-name src -o docs/ mymodule/

It generates:

docs/
├── modules.rst
└── src/
    ├── animals/
    │   ├── chimp.rst
    │   ├── index.rst
    │   ├── monke.rst
    │   └── special/
    │       ├── catto.rst
    │       ├── doggo.rst
    │       └── index.rst
    ├── base.rst
    ├── exceptions.rst
    ├── fruits/
    │   ├── mango.rst
    │   ├── pear.rst
    │   └── index.rst
    └── index.rst

Note that mymodule has been renamed to src.

As a Sphinx Extension

You can also use this as a sphinx extension.

Create a file called docs/conf.py and configure it like this:

# ...
extensions = [
    "sphinx_nested_apidoc",
    # ...other extensions
]

# Name of the package directory.
sphinx_nested_apidoc_package_dir = "packagename"
# Name of the folder to put all the package documentation in. By default it is
# the name of the package itself.
sphinx_nested_apidoc_package_name = "src"
# ...

And then run:

sphinx-build docs docs/_build

What it does

• As you saw earlier, it generates a nested directory from a flattened one.

• Under the hood, it uses sphinx-apidoc. More on this below.

As stated above, sphinx-nested-apidoc uses sphinx-apidoc internally. This means, you can configure sphinx-apidoc from sphinx-nested-apidoc. For example:

# You can pass arguments like this:
sphinx-nested-apidoc -o docs/ mymodule/ -- -M -F --ext-githubpages
# or you can simply omit the '--'.

Everything after the required positional argument of sphinx-nested-apidoc is passed to sphinx-apidoc.

What it does not do

• It does not modify the contents of the file. It just renames (or moves) them.

• It is not a standalone tool. It requires sphinx-apidoc for its work.