A documentation build process is the workflow a package registry or project uses to generate manuals, API references, and site pages from package content. It may parse README files, templates, examples, or embedded assets, and in some ecosystems it can invoke scripts, plugins, or converters while building the docs. That makes the process more than formatting: it is a code-adjacent step that can touch untrusted input.
This matters because attackers can abuse documentation generation to trigger remote code execution, leak secrets, or alter published output. A malicious package may hide payloads in build files, markup, or metadata so they run before anyone installs the package. Defenders should treat documentation builds as untrusted workloads: isolate them in a sandbox, remove network access, limit secrets, pin dependencies, and review generated artifacts before publication. In supply-chain attacks, the documentation path is often attractive because it sits inside trusted automation.