Python autodoc with Sphinx

Comparing Python documentation approaches

This looks at Sphinx autodoc for automatically generating API documentation from Python docstrings. Uses a coffee machine simulator program to provide a simple codebase to experiment with documentation extraction.

See also: mkdocstrings approach - same Python code, but using MkDocs and mkdocstrings.

Building the Documentation

# Set up environment
python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate  # Windows
pip install sphinx furo

# Build documentation
cd docs
make html

# View in browser
start build/html/index.html

Technologies

• Python 3.13
• Sphinx 9.1.0
• Furo theme
• Napoleon extension for Google-style docstrings

Source code

The coffee machine simulator is from my Python learning coursework and includes classes for:

• CoffeeMaker - Resource management and drink preparation
• MoneyMachine - Payment processing and profit tracking
• Menu/MenuItem - Menu management and drink lookup