diff --git a/docs/.gitignore b/docs/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3d8a6cd3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+api
+xml
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..78cff35a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+# Configuration file for the Sphinx documentation builder.
+#
+# This file only contains a selection of the most common options. For a full
+# list see the documentation:
+# https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/configuration.html
+
+# -- Path setup --------------------------------------------------------------
+
+# If extensions (or modules to document with autodoc) are in another directory,
+# add these directories to sys.path here. If the directory is relative to the
+# documentation root, use os.path.abspath to make it absolute, like shown here.
+#
+import os
+# import sys
+# sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('.'))
+
+
+# -- Project information -----------------------------------------------------
+
+project = 'libkiwix'
+copyright = '2021, libzim-team'
+author = 'libzim-team'
+
+
+# -- General configuration ---------------------------------------------------
+
+on_rtd = os.environ.get('READTHEDOCS', None) == 'True'
+
+# Add any Sphinx extension module names here, as strings. They can be
+# extensions coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom
+# ones.
+extensions = [
+    'breathe',
+    'exhale'
+]
+
+# Add any paths that contain templates here, relative to this directory.
+templates_path = ['_templates']
+
+# List of patterns, relative to source directory, that match files and
+# directories to ignore when looking for source files.
+# This pattern also affects html_static_path and html_extra_path.
+exclude_patterns = ['_build', 'Thumbs.db', '.DS_Store']
+
+
+if not on_rtd:
+    html_theme = 'sphinx_rtd_theme'
+
+# Add any paths that contain custom static files (such as style sheets) here,
+# relative to this directory. They are copied after the builtin static files,
+# so a file named "default.css" will overwrite the builtin "default.css".
+html_static_path = ['_static']
+
+breathe_projects = {
+    "libkiwix": "./xml"
+}
+breathe_default_project = 'libkiwix'
+
+exhale_args = {
+    "containmentFolder":   "./api",
+    "rootFileName":        "ref_api.rst",
+    "rootFileTitle":       "Reference API",
+    "doxygenStripFromPath":"..",
+    "treeViewIsBootstrap": True,
+    "createTreeView" : True,
+    "exhaleExecutesDoxygen": True,
+    "exhaleDoxygenStdin":    "INPUT = ../include"
+}
+
+primary_domain = 'cpp'
+
+highlight_language = 'cpp'
diff --git a/docs/index.rst b/docs/index.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..20b189e57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/index.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+.. libkiwix documentation master file, created by
+   sphinx-quickstart on Fri Jul 24 15:40:50 2020.
+   You can adapt this file completely to your liking, but it should at least
+   contain the root `toctree` directive.
+
+Welcome to libzim's documentation!
+==================================
+
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 2
+   :caption: Contents:
+
+   usage
+   api/ref_api
diff --git a/docs/meson.build b/docs/meson.build
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..71d4fc560
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/meson.build
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+
+sphinx = find_program('sphinx-build', native:true)
+
+sphinx_target = run_target('doc',
+    command: [sphinx, '-bhtml',
+              meson.current_source_dir(),
+              meson.current_build_dir()])
diff --git a/docs/requirements.txt b/docs/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d805c256d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+breathe
+exhale
+sphinx<4
diff --git a/docs/usage.rst b/docs/usage.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..48faf6a27
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/usage.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+Libkiwix programming
+====================
+
+Introduction
+------------
+
+libkiwix is written in C++. To use the library, you need the include files of libkiwix have
+to link against libzim.
+
+Errors are handled with exceptions. When something goes wrong, libzim throws an error,
+which is always derived from std::exception.
+
+All classes are defined in the namespace kiwix.
+
+libkiwix is a set of tools to manage zim files and provide some common functionnality.
+While libkiwix has some wrappers around libzim classes, they are deprecated and will be removed
+in the future.
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 403c81a82..b09f65579 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -78,6 +78,9 @@ subdir('scripts')
 subdir('static')
 subdir('src')
 subdir('test')
+if get_option('doc')
+  subdir('docs')
+endif
 
 pkg_requires = ['libzim', 'icu-i18n', 'pugixml', 'libcurl', 'libmicrohttpd', 'xapian-core']
 
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index fbcf81d6f..51ec0ff39 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -1,2 +1,4 @@
 option('wrapper', type:'array', choices:['java', 'android'], value:[],
   description: 'The wrapper to generate.')
+option('doc', type : 'boolean', value : false,
+  description : 'Build the documentations.')