pydocstyle "D100: Missing docstring in public module"

TL;DR: Add a module docstring as the first statement in the file. D100 means a public module has no docstring. Write one triple-quoted summary at the very top of the file (after any shebang or encoding comment), then re-run pydocstyle. If the module should stay undocumented, rename it with a leading underscore or add D100 to the ignore list.

D100: Missing docstring in public module

1. Reproduce:

   pydocstyle path/to/module.py

   Expected: path/to/module.py:1: D100: Missing docstring in public module.

2. Add the docstring as the first statement in the file:

   """Utilities for rendering the docs sitemap."""
   
   import os

3. Re-run:

   pydocstyle path/to/module.py

   Expected: no output, which means the file is clean.

4. If the module is intentionally undocumented (a script entry point, a test helper), silence the rule in setup.cfg instead:

   [pydocstyle]
   ignore = D100

Use this when

• pydocstyle reports D100 on a module file
• CI fails the docs-lint step with missing-docstring codes
• You are bringing a legacy codebase up to docstring conventions

Not for this skill when

• The missing docstring is on a function or class - those are D103 and D101, different fixes
• The file is a private module (leading underscore) - pydocstyle already skips it
• You use a different docstring linter - the code letters differ per tool

Variant phrasings

• "pydocstyle D100"
• "Missing docstring in public module"
• "pydocstyle missing module docstring"

Why it happens

pydocstyle treats every module without a leading underscore as public API surface, and public surface needs a docstring under its conventions. A file that starts directly with imports or code has no docstring statement, so the check fires on line 1.

Edge cases

• The docstring must be a bare string expression, not assigned to a variable; a lone triple-quoted string on its own line is what counts.
• __init__.py files are modules too and get D100 when they have no docstring.
• A shebang or encoding comment may precede the docstring, but nothing else can.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_nNt2Hc6WxhHywFnyvpiisA

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_nNt2Hc6WxhHywFnyvpiisA

Thread query: pydocstyle "D100: Missing docstring in public module"

TL;DR: