diff --git a/docs/users/how_tos/compilation_database.md b/docs/users/how_tos/compilation_database.md
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+---
+id: compilation_database
+title: Compilation databases
+---
+
+# Generating compilation databases
+
+You can generate compilation databases for consumption by tools such as
+clangd and clang-tidy by running the following BXL script:
+
+```sh
+buck2 bxl prelude//cxx/tools/compilation_database.bxl:generate -- --targets ...
+```
+
+The script will generate a compilation database for all source and
+header inputs to the targets listed on the command line. The path to the
+database is printed to `stdout`. Note that files that are referenced by
+multiple targets will have multiple associated entries in the database,
+which may not be desirable in all circumstances. For example, clang-tidy
+runs analysis for each entry sequentially when the file being linted has
+several entries.
+
+It is common to symlink the resulting data at the root of the
+repository:
+
+```sh
+ln -sf $(buck2 bxl prelude//cxx/tools/compilation_database.bxl:generate -- --targets ...) $(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
+```
+
+Since the path to the script is rather long, consider setting up an
+alias in your repository:
+
+```python
+# `comp_db.bxl`
+
+load("@prelude//cxx/tools/compilation_database.bxl:generate", "generate")
+
+gen = generate
+```
+
+```sh
+ln -sf $(buck2 bxl comp_db.bxl:gen -- --targets ...) $(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
+```
+
+Providing better ergonomics for BXL scripts (such as enabling something
+like `buck2 comp_db`) is being discussed at
+<https://github.com/facebook/buck2/issues/86>.
diff --git a/prelude/cxx/tools/compilation_database.bxl b/prelude/cxx/tools/compilation_database.bxl
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+++ b/prelude/cxx/tools/compilation_database.bxl
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+load("@prelude//cxx/comp_db.bzl", "CxxCompilationDbInfo")
+load("@prelude//cxx/compile.bzl", "CxxSrcCompileCommand")
+load("@prelude//utils:utils.bzl", "flatten")
+
+def _make_entry(ctx: bxl.Context, compile_command: CxxSrcCompileCommand) -> dict:
+    args = compile_command.cxx_compile_cmd.base_compile_cmd.copy()
+
+    # This prevents clangd from jumping into `buck-out` when using Go To
+    # Definition, which significantly improces user experience.
+    args.add(["-I", "."])
+    args.add(compile_command.cxx_compile_cmd.argsfile.cmd_form)
+    args.add(compile_command.args)
+    ctx.output.ensure_multiple(args)
+
+    return {
+        "arguments": args,
+        "directory": ctx.fs.abs_path_unsafe(ctx.root()),
+        "file": compile_command.src,
+    }
+
+def _impl(ctx: bxl.Context):
+    actions = ctx.bxl_actions().actions
+    targets = flatten(ctx.cli_args.targets)
+
+    db = []
+    for name, target in ctx.analysis(ctx.configured_targets(targets)).items():
+        comp_db_info = target.providers().get(CxxCompilationDbInfo)
+        if comp_db_info:
+            db += [_make_entry(ctx, cc) for cc in comp_db_info.info.values()]
+
+    db_file = actions.declare_output("compile_commands.json")
+    actions.write_json(db_file.as_output(), db, with_inputs = True, pretty = True)
+    ctx.output.print(ctx.output.ensure(db_file))
+
+generate = bxl_main(
+    doc = "Generate a compilation database for a set of targets and print its path to stdout",
+    impl = _impl,
+    cli_args = {
+        "targets": cli_args.list(
+            cli_args.target_expr(),
+            doc = "Targets to generate the database for",
+        ),
+    },
+)