diff --git a/.github/workflows/deploy-latest.yml b/.github/workflows/deploy-latest.yml
index d6baa2f6..ed60376c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/deploy-latest.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/deploy-latest.yml
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ jobs:
       if: ${{ github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' }}
       run: |-
         cd docs
-        sphinx-build -b xml . _build
+        DISABLE_SPHINX_INLINE_TABS=1 sphinx-build -b xml . _build
         sphinx-to-sqlite ../docs.db _build
         cd ..
     - name: Set up the alternate-route demo
diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish.yml b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
index b555a1eb..60f32ed6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ jobs:
     - name: Build docs.db
       run: |-
         cd docs
-        sphinx-build -b xml . _build
+        DISABLE_SPHINX_INLINE_TABS=1 sphinx-build -b xml . _build
         sphinx-to-sqlite ../docs.db _build
         cd ..
     - name: Set up Cloud Run
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 67f7fd11..ca0eb986 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@
 # 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 os
+
 # import sys
 # sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('.'))
 
@@ -35,8 +36,9 @@ extensions = [
     "sphinx.ext.extlinks",
     "sphinx.ext.autodoc",
     "sphinx_copybutton",
-    "sphinx_inline_tabs",
 ]
+if not os.environ.get("DISABLE_SPHINX_INLINE_TABS"):
+    extensions += ["sphinx_inline_tabs"]
 
 extlinks = {
     "issue": ("https://github.com/simonw/datasette/issues/%s", "#%s"),