breathe
Sphinx Doxygen renderer
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you have C/C++ code to document alongside Sphinx-based docs and are willing to run Doxygen as a prerequisite. It is stable, permissively licensed, and proven in production by major projects. The aging maintenance status (538 days since release) is a minor concern but not a blocker—the codebase is mature and the repository remains active. Install it if your documentation workflow already includes Doxygen; skip it if you're looking for pure Python API documentation.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Doxygen 1.9.2+ to be installed separately and run on your codebase to generate XML output before Breathe can process it.
- Installs cleanly with only Sphinx as a runtime dependency.
- Maintenance is aging—last release was 538 days ago—but the repository is active and not archived, with established maintainers and a stable codebase used by major projects.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — Licensed under a permissive BSD license, so you can use Breathe freely in commercial and private projects without restriction or attribution requirement.
last release 2025-02-22 (538 days) · last repo commit 2026-01-01 · 813 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 1,538,211 downloads/mo, #3,791 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install breathe
In conf.py:
extensions = ['breathe']
reathe_projects = {'myproject': 'path/to/doxygen/xml'}
In your .rst file:
.. doxygenindex::
:project: myproject- Whether the 538-day gap since last release indicates planned maintenance cadence or stalled development.
- Compatibility with the latest Doxygen versions beyond 1.9.2.
What it is and what it does
Breathe bridges Doxygen and Sphinx, two widely used but separate documentation tools. Doxygen parses C/C++ source code and generates detailed API reference material; Sphinx builds polished, long-form documentation in HTML, PDF, and other formats. Breathe lets you combine them by reading Doxygen's XML output and rendering it as reStructuredText directives inside your Sphinx build, so your API docs live alongside your user guides, tutorials, and conceptual material in a single coherent documentation site.
You run Doxygen once on your codebase to generate XML, configure Breathe to point to that XML, then use Breathe directives in your .rst files to pull in function signatures, class hierarchies, and parameter documentation. It's widely used in mature projects—PyTorch, NumPy, XGBoost, and others rely on it—and requires Python 3.9+, Sphinx 7.2+, and Doxygen 1.9.2+.
Use it for
- Document a C/C++ library's public API alongside Python bindings or usage examples in a single Sphinx site.
- Maintain API reference for a compiled extension module without manually writing or updating signatures.
- Build unified docs for a polyglot project where some components are C/C++ and others are Python.
- Embed live Doxygen output in a ReadTheDocs or similar hosted documentation site.
- Generate searchable, cross-referenced API docs that stay in sync with source code changes.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you have C/C++ code to document alongside Sphinx-based docs and are willing to run Doxygen as a prerequisite.
It is stable, permissively licensed, and proven in production by major projects. The aging maintenance status (538 days since release) is a minor concern but not a blocker—the codebase is mature and the repository remains active. Install it if your documentation workflow already includes Doxygen; skip it if you're looking for pure Python API documentation.
Install
breathe on PyPI
Before you install
Installs cleanly with only Sphinx as a runtime dependency. Maintenance is aging—last release was 538 days ago—but the repository is active and not archived, with established maintainers and a stable codebase used by major projects.
Requires Doxygen 1.9.2+ to be installed separately and run on your codebase to generate XML output before Breathe can process it.
License in practice
Licensed under a permissive BSD license, so you can use Breathe freely in commercial and private projects without restriction or attribution requirement.
Quickstart
pip install breathe
In conf.py:
extensions = ['breathe']
reathe_projects = {'myproject': 'path/to/doxygen/xml'}
In your .rst file:
.. doxygenindex::
:project: myprojectVerify before relying
- Whether the 538-day gap since last release indicates planned maintenance cadence or stalled development.
- Compatibility with the latest Doxygen versions beyond 1.9.2.
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.9 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 1 packageSphinx |
| Maintenance | Aging 538 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 1,538,211 / month, #3,791 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableEnvironment :: ConsoleEnvironment :: Web EnvironmentFramework :: SphinxFramework :: Sphinx :: ExtensionIntended Audience :: DevelopersIntended Audience :: EducationLicense :: OSI Approved :: BSD LicenseOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Topic :: DocumentationTopic :: Documentation :: SphinxTopic :: Software DevelopmentTopic :: Software Development :: DocumentationTopic :: Text ProcessingTopic :: Utilities |
Evidence: breathe-4.36.0-py3-none-any.whl
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See also exhale · readthedocs-sphinx-search · sphinxcontrib-blockdiag · readthedocs-sphinx-ext · sphinx-click · sphinxcontrib-mermaid · changelog · Sphinx · jupyter-sphinx