diff --git a/docs/source/conf.py b/docs/source/conf.py
index 26a16881..cd0fad2b 100644
--- a/docs/source/conf.py
+++ b/docs/source/conf.py
@@ -67,7 +67,8 @@ author = u'Project Jupyter team'
 # built documents.
 # Project Jupyter uses the following to autopopulate version
 from os.path import dirname
-root = dirname(dirname(dirname(__file__)))
+docs = dirname(dirname(__file__))
+root = dirname(docs)
 sys.path.insert(0, root)
 
 import jupyterhub
@@ -382,5 +383,8 @@ if not on_rtd:  # only import and set the theme if we're building docs locally
     import sphinx_rtd_theme
     html_theme = 'sphinx_rtd_theme'
     html_theme_path = [sphinx_rtd_theme.get_html_theme_path()]
-
+else:
+    # build rest-api, since RTD doesn't run make
+    from subprocess import check_call as sh
+    sh(['make', 'rest-api'], cwd=docs)
 # otherwise, readthedocs.org uses their theme by default, so no need to specify it