diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 7f4bf2c93..daa39f029 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ fish 4.2.1 (released ???)
 
 This release fixes the following problems identified in 4.2.0:
 
+- When building from a tarball without Sphinx (that is, with ``-DBUILD_DOCS=OFF`` or when ``sphinx-build`` is not found),
+  builtin man pages and help files were missing, which has been fixed (:issue:`12052`).
 - ``fish_config``'s theme selector (the "colors" tab) was broken, which has been fixed (:issue:`12053`).
 
 fish 4.2.0 (released November 10, 2025)
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index d161def83..764ed19a3 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ set(VARS_FOR_CARGO
     "${FISH_PCRE2_BUILDFLAG}"
     "RUSTFLAGS=$ENV{RUSTFLAGS} ${rust_debugflags}"
     "FISH_SPHINX=${SPHINX_EXECUTABLE}"
+    "FISH_USE_PREBUILT_DOCS=${USE_PREBUILT_DOCS}"
 )
 
 # Let fish pick up when we're running out of the build directory without installing
diff --git a/build.rs b/build.rs
index bfd49a5e4..c0c0365c4 100644
--- a/build.rs
+++ b/build.rs
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ fn detect_cfgs(target: &mut Target) {
         ("apple", &detect_apple),
         ("bsd", &detect_bsd),
         ("using_cmake", &|_| option_env!("FISH_CMAKE_BINARY_DIR").is_some()),
+        ("use_prebuilt_docs", &|_| env_var("FISH_USE_PREBUILT_DOCS").is_some_and(|v| v == "TRUE") ),
         ("cygwin", &detect_cygwin),
         ("small_main_stack", &has_small_stack),
         // See if libc supports the thread-safe localeconv_l(3) alternative to localeconv(3).
diff --git a/build_tools/make_tarball.sh b/build_tools/make_tarball.sh
index 7393224f4..d44559a28 100755
--- a/build_tools/make_tarball.sh
+++ b/build_tools/make_tarball.sh
@@ -66,13 +66,15 @@ PREFIX_TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
 cd "$PREFIX_TMPDIR"
 echo "$VERSION" > version
 cmake -G "$BUILD_GENERATOR" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug "$wd"
+mkdir $PWD/user_doc/src
 FISH_SPHINX_BUILD_DATE=$tag_creation_date \
+FISH_SPHINX_HELP_SECTIONS_OUTPUT=$PWD/user_doc/src/help_sections.rs \
     $BUILD_TOOL doc
 
 TAR_APPEND="$TAR --append --file=$path --mtime=now --owner=0 --group=0 \
     --mode=g+w,a+rX --transform s/^/$prefix\//"
 $TAR_APPEND --no-recursion user_doc
-$TAR_APPEND user_doc/html user_doc/man
+$TAR_APPEND user_doc/html user_doc/man user_doc/src/help_sections.rs
 $TAR_APPEND version
 
 cd -
diff --git a/cmake/Docs.cmake b/cmake/Docs.cmake
index 2fddd0e46..9466adb6d 100644
--- a/cmake/Docs.cmake
+++ b/cmake/Docs.cmake
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ endif()
 
 add_feature_info(Documentation INSTALL_DOCS "user manual and documentation")
 
+set(USE_PREBUILT_DOCS FALSE)
 if(BUILD_DOCS)
     configure_file("${SPHINX_SRC_DIR}/conf.py" "${SPHINX_BUILD_DIR}/conf.py" @ONLY)
     add_custom_target(doc ALL
@@ -76,6 +77,7 @@ if(BUILD_DOCS)
                  PROPERTY FOLDER cmake/DocTargets)
 
 elseif(HAVE_PREBUILT_DOCS)
+    set(USE_PREBUILT_DOCS TRUE)
     if(NOT CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR STREQUAL CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR)
         # Out of tree build - link the prebuilt documentation to the build tree
         add_custom_target(link_doc ALL)
diff --git a/crates/build-man-pages/build.rs b/crates/build-man-pages/build.rs
index a07c510b1..eeadac521 100644
--- a/crates/build-man-pages/build.rs
+++ b/crates/build-man-pages/build.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-use fish_build_helper::env_var;
+use fish_build_helper::{env_var, workspace_root};
 use std::path::Path;
 
 fn main() {
@@ -9,6 +9,16 @@ fn main() {
     let _ = std::fs::create_dir_all(&sec1_dir);
 
     let help_sections_path = Path::new(&env_var("OUT_DIR").unwrap()).join("help_sections.rs");
+
+    if env_var("FISH_USE_PREBUILT_DOCS").is_some_and(|v| v == "TRUE") {
+        std::fs::copy(
+            workspace_root().join("user_doc/src/help_sections.rs"),
+            help_sections_path,
+        )
+        .unwrap();
+        return;
+    }
+
     std::fs::write(
         help_sections_path.clone(),
         r#"pub static HELP_SECTIONS: &str = "";"#,
@@ -26,8 +36,6 @@ fn build_man(man_dir: &Path, sec1_dir: &Path, help_sections_path: &Path) {
         process::{Command, Stdio},
     };
 
-    use fish_build_helper::workspace_root;
-
     let workspace_root = workspace_root();
     let doc_src_dir = workspace_root.join("doc_src");
 
diff --git a/doc_src/conf.py b/doc_src/conf.py
index 12ac5005d..e62e98ef4 100644
--- a/doc_src/conf.py
+++ b/doc_src/conf.py
@@ -97,7 +97,12 @@ def setup(app):
     app.add_directive("synopsis", FishSynopsisDirective)
 
     app.add_config_value("issue_url", default=None, rebuild="html")
-    app.add_config_value("fish_help_sections_output", "", "man", str)
+    app.add_config_value(
+        "fish_help_sections_output",
+        default=os.environ.get("FISH_SPHINX_HELP_SECTIONS_OUTPUT", ""),
+        rebuild="man",
+        types=str,
+    )
     app.add_role("issue", issue_role)
 
     app.connect("builder-inited", remove_fish_indent_lexer)
diff --git a/src/builtins/status.rs b/src/builtins/status.rs
index 461ebd2ed..ebf1153ae 100644
--- a/src/builtins/status.rs
+++ b/src/builtins/status.rs
@@ -334,10 +334,19 @@ fn parse_cmd_opts(
 use rust_embed::RustEmbed;
 
 #[cfg(feature = "embed-data")]
-#[derive(RustEmbed)]
-#[folder = "$FISH_RESOLVED_BUILD_DIR/fish-man/man1"]
-#[prefix = "man/man1/"]
-struct Docs;
+cfg_if!(
+    if #[cfg(use_prebuilt_docs)] {
+        #[derive(RustEmbed)]
+        #[folder = "user_doc/man/man1"]
+        #[prefix = "man/man1/"]
+        struct Docs;
+    } else {
+        #[derive(RustEmbed)]
+        #[folder = "$FISH_RESOLVED_BUILD_DIR/fish-man/man1"]
+        #[prefix = "man/man1/"]
+        struct Docs;
+    }
+);
 
 #[cfg(all(using_cmake, feature = "embed-data"))]
 #[derive(RustEmbed)]