diff --git a/.readthedocs.yml b/.readthedocs.yml
index d14504b..9f802cf 100644
--- a/.readthedocs.yml
+++ b/.readthedocs.yml
@@ -2,6 +2,12 @@
 version: 2
 build:
   os: ubuntu-20.04
+  jobs:
+    pre_install:
+        # see https://github.com/readthedocs/readthedocs.org/issues/8201
+      - git update-index --assume-unchanged ci/requirements/docs.yml docs/conf.py
+      # needs to be editable
+      - pip install -e .
   tools:
     python: mambaforge-4.10
 sphinx:
@@ -9,4 +15,3 @@ sphinx:
   fail_on_warning: false
 conda:
   environment: ci/requirements/docs.yml
-formats: []