diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 470e0f56..45dcb5ea 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ jobs:
       - restore_cache:
           keys:
             - cache-pip
+      - run: pip install --user -e .
       # Install the packages needed to build our documentation
       # This will depend on your particular package!
       - run: pip install --user -r docs/doc-requirements.txt
diff --git a/Pipfile b/Pipfile
index 451eb5e2..054e2aef 100644
--- a/Pipfile
+++ b/Pipfile
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ recommonmark = "*"
 alabaster = "*"
 Sphinx = ">=1.4,!=1.5.4"
 alabaster_jupyterhub = "*"
+sphinxcontrib-autoprogram = "*"
 
 [packages]
 repo2docker = {path=".", editable=true}
diff --git a/docs/doc-requirements.txt b/docs/doc-requirements.txt
index 03f3de16..6fbafab2 100644
--- a/docs/doc-requirements.txt
+++ b/docs/doc-requirements.txt
@@ -4,3 +4,4 @@ sphinx>=1.4, !=1.5.4
 recommonmark
 alabaster
 alabaster_jupyterhub
+sphinxcontrib-autoprogram
diff --git a/docs/source/conf.py b/docs/source/conf.py
index 2685d03f..a4f0a86b 100644
--- a/docs/source/conf.py
+++ b/docs/source/conf.py
@@ -33,7 +33,9 @@ import recommonmark.parser
 # Add any Sphinx extension module names here, as strings. They can be
 # extensions coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom
 # ones.
-extensions = ['sphinx.ext.extlinks']
+extensions = ['sphinx.ext.extlinks',
+              'sphinxcontrib.autoprogram',
+              ]
 
 extlinks = {
     'issue': ('https://github.com/jupyter/repo2docker/issues/%s', 'Issue #'),
diff --git a/docs/source/usage.rst b/docs/source/usage.rst
index 2c443d65..658c5d80 100644
--- a/docs/source/usage.rst
+++ b/docs/source/usage.rst
@@ -107,4 +107,12 @@ be used by docker directly.
 
      jupyter-repo2docker --no-build --debug https://github.com/norvig/pytudes
 
+
+Command line API
+================
+
+.. autoprogram:: repo2docker.__main__:argparser
+  :prog: jupyter-repo2docker
+
+
 .. _Pytudes: https://github.com/norvig/pytudes
diff --git a/repo2docker/__main__.py b/repo2docker/__main__.py
index 6c5bd4c6..d0e01d14 100644
--- a/repo2docker/__main__.py
+++ b/repo2docker/__main__.py
@@ -37,7 +37,9 @@ def validate_image_name(image_name):
 
 def get_argparser():
     """Get arguments that may be used by repo2docker"""
-    argparser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+    argparser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+        description='Fetch a repository and build a container image',
+    )
 
     argparser.add_argument(
         '--config',
@@ -194,6 +196,8 @@ def get_argparser():
 
     return argparser
 
+argparser = get_argparser()
+
 
 def make_r2d(argv=None):
     if argv is None: