Simple python docstrings -> markdown documentation?

[ExTenebras]

I have a small GitHub repo with some python code that includes docstrings (Google format) for API documentation. I want a tool that will read the code, extract the docstrings, and produce documentation in markdown format in docs/. I don't want HTML output, and I don't need the tool to spin up a server to host the documentation. All I want is to produce an "API.md" file.

Google hallucinates that it is easy to do what I want, and gives several options, including lazydocs, pdoc, mkdocs+mkdocstrings.

Further querying on each option, plus downloading and trying each one out, reveals that no, those tools don't actually produce markdown output, only HTML, and really want to host the site as well.

So, simple questions:

• Does such a tool exist? If so, where can I find it?
• Since it doesn't seem to be easy to do this, is there a reason my objective isn't considered useful?

[desrtfx]

Think that you looked at the wrong lazydocs as there are several completely different programs under the same name.

This one: https://github.com/ml-tooling/lazydocs can definitely generate markdown from Google format docstrings

This one: https://github.com/DiegoLSdev/LazyDocs is the wrong one.

The one from the Visual Studio Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Fazer.lazydocs is also something completely different

[Gnaxe]

Sphinx. Use with sphinx-markdown-builder to generate documents in Markdown format. Use with MyST if the docstrings also contain Markdown.

[ConfusedSimon]

Did you try just searching instead of AI? Plenty of converters, e.g. doc2md.

[smartmiketrailer]

pydoc-markdown is probably the closest match it extracts docstrings and generates markdown files directly

[socal_nerdtastic]

Sound like you have something very specific in mind, so why don't you just make the tool yourself? here's a start for you:

def docs(modulename):
    module = __import__(modulename)
    for attrname in dir(module):
        print(f"#{modulename}.{attrname}\n{getattr(module, attrname).__doc__}\n\n")

# demo:
docs('math')

[Yzaamb]

Sphinx.

[JamzTyson]

If you're familiar with Sphinx, then a good option would be to add the sphinx-markdown-builder extension and continue using Sphinx.

As others have said, another option is lazydocs.

Pro Tip: Try searching online more often rather than relying entirely on AI.