diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index c4f39afda..73f107c99 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -158,6 +158,11 @@ In addition to the normal CMake build options (like ``CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX``), f
 - Rust_CARGO=path - the path to cargo. If not set, cmake will check $PATH and ~/.cargo/bin
 - Rust_CARGO_TARGET=target - the target to pass to cargo. Set this for cross-compilation.
 - WITH_DOCS=ON|OFF - whether to build the documentation. By default, this is ON when Sphinx is installed.
+- FISH_INDENT_FOR_BUILDING_DOCS - useful for cross-compilation.
+  Set this to the path to the ``fish_indent`` executable to use for building HTML docs.
+  By default, ``${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/fish_indent`` will be used.
+  If that's not runnable on the compile host,
+  you can build a native one with ``cargo build --bin fish_indent`` and set this to ``$PWD/target/debug/fish_indent``.
 - FISH_USE_SYSTEM_PCRE2=ON|OFF - whether to use an installed pcre2. This is normally autodetected.
 - WITH_GETTEXT=ON|OFF - whether to include translations.
 - extra_functionsdir, extra_completionsdir and extra_confdir - to compile in an additional directory to be searched for functions, completions and configuration snippets
diff --git a/cmake/Docs.cmake b/cmake/Docs.cmake
index 48482a12d..4bdeda194 100644
--- a/cmake/Docs.cmake
+++ b/cmake/Docs.cmake
@@ -12,12 +12,21 @@ set(SPHINX_BUILD_DIR "${SPHINX_ROOT_DIR}/build")
 set(SPHINX_HTML_DIR "${SPHINX_ROOT_DIR}/html")
 set(SPHINX_MANPAGE_DIR "${SPHINX_ROOT_DIR}/man")
 
-# sphinx-docs uses fish_indent for highlighting.
-# Prepend the output dir of fish_indent to PATH.
+set(FISH_INDENT_FOR_BUILDING_DOCS "" CACHE FILEPATH "Path to fish_indent executable for building HTML docs")
+
+if(FISH_INDENT_FOR_BUILDING_DOCS)
+    get_filename_component(FISH_INDENT_DIR "${FISH_INDENT_FOR_BUILDING_DOCS}" DIRECTORY)
+    set(SPHINX_HTML_FISH_INDENT_PATH ${FISH_INDENT_DIR})
+    set(SPHINX_HTML_FISH_INDENT_DEP)
+else()
+    set(SPHINX_HTML_FISH_INDENT_PATH ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
+    set(SPHINX_HTML_FISH_INDENT_DEP fish_indent)
+endif()
+
 add_custom_target(sphinx-docs
     mkdir -p ${SPHINX_HTML_DIR}/_static/
     COMMAND env FISH_BUILD_VERSION_FILE=${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${FBVF}
-        PATH="${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}:$$PATH"
+        PATH="${SPHINX_HTML_FISH_INDENT_PATH}:$$PATH"
         ${SPHINX_EXECUTABLE}
         -j auto
         -q -b html
@@ -25,7 +34,10 @@ add_custom_target(sphinx-docs
         -d "${SPHINX_ROOT_DIR}/.doctrees-html"
         "${SPHINX_SRC_DIR}"
         "${SPHINX_HTML_DIR}"
-    DEPENDS CHECK-FISH-BUILD-VERSION-FILE ${SPHINX_SRC_DIR}/fish_indent_lexer.py fish_indent
+    DEPENDS
+        CHECK-FISH-BUILD-VERSION-FILE
+        ${SPHINX_SRC_DIR}/fish_indent_lexer.py
+        ${SPHINX_HTML_FISH_INDENT_DEP}
     COMMENT "Building HTML documentation with Sphinx")
 
 add_custom_target(sphinx-manpages