diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/sphinx/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/sphinx/default.nix
index 065f8750bb5f..19961cc2ec18 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/sphinx/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/sphinx/default.nix
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 , pygments
 , requests
 , snowballstemmer
+, sphinxcontrib-apidoc
 , sphinxcontrib-applehelp
 , sphinxcontrib-devhelp
 , sphinxcontrib-htmlhelp
@@ -63,6 +64,9 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     sphinxcontrib-serializinghtml
     # extra[docs]
     sphinxcontrib-websupport
+
+    # extra plugins which are otherwise not found by sphinx-build
+    sphinxcontrib-apidoc
   ] ++ lib.optionals (pythonOlder "3.10") [
     importlib-metadata
   ];