pydocstyle "D103: Missing docstring in public function"

TL;DR: Add a docstring as the first statement inside the function. D103 means a public function has no docstring. Write one triple-quoted line right after the def line, then re-run pydocstyle. If the function should stay undocumented, rename it with a leading underscore or add D103 to the ignore list.

D103: Missing docstring in public function

1. Reproduce:

   pydocstyle path/to/module.py

   Expected: lines like path/to/module.py:12: D103: Missing docstring in public function.

2. Add the docstring inside each flagged function:

   def build_index(pages):
       """Build the search index from a list of pages."""
       ...

3. Re-run:

   pydocstyle path/to/module.py

   Expected: no D103 lines remain.

4. To silence project-wide instead, add to setup.cfg:

   [pydocstyle]
   ignore = D103

Use this when

• pydocstyle reports D103 on functions
• CI fails the docs-lint step with missing-docstring codes
• You are documenting a codebase function by function

Not for this skill when

• The missing docstring is on a module or class - those are D100 and D101
• The function is private (leading underscore) - pydocstyle already skips it
• The function is a test helper where docstrings add no value - prefer the ignore list over noise docstrings

Variant phrasings

• "pydocstyle D103"
• "Missing docstring in public function"
• "pydocstyle missing function docstring"

Why it happens

pydocstyle treats every function without a leading underscore as public, and its conventions require public functions to carry a docstring. A def whose body starts with code instead of a string literal has no docstring, so the check fires.

Edge cases

• Decorated functions are still checked; the docstring goes inside the def, below the decorators.
• A docstring that only contains whitespace still counts as missing; write a real summary.
• Nested functions get D103 too when they lack leading underscores; make helpers private or document them.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_pr04tncHniRY2xGGHcYIkQ

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_pr04tncHniRY2xGGHcYIkQ

Thread query: pydocstyle "D103: Missing docstring in public function"

TL;DR: