diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index 27816138007..38b41449dab 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@ repos:
   rev: v1.10.0
   hooks:
   - id: mypy
-    exclude: tests/data
+    # exclude due to errors from duplicate conf.py under docs
+    exclude: tests/data|docs/html|docs/man
     args: ["--pretty", "--show-error-codes"]
     additional_dependencies: [
         'keyring==24.2.0',
diff --git a/docs/common_conf.py b/docs/common_conf.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9096035dc4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/common_conf.py
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+import os
+import re
+from typing import Tuple
+
+
+def read_version() -> Tuple[str, str]:
+    # Find the version and release information.
+    # We have a single source of truth for our version number: pip's __init__.py file.
+    # This next bit of code reads from it.
+    file_with_version = os.path.join(
+        os.path.dirname(__file__), "..", "src", "pip", "__init__.py"
+    )
+    with open(file_with_version) as f:
+        for line in f:
+            m = re.match(r'__version__ = "(.*)"', line)
+            if m:
+                __version__ = m.group(1)
+                # The short X.Y version.
+                version = ".".join(__version__.split(".")[:2])
+                # The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
+                release = __version__
+                return version, release
+        return "dev", "dev"
+
+
+# General information about the project.
+project = "pip"
+copyright = "The pip developers"
+version, release = read_version()
diff --git a/docs/html/conf.py b/docs/html/conf.py
index 683ea7b87d8..7a55f002150 100644
--- a/docs/html/conf.py
+++ b/docs/html/conf.py
@@ -1,16 +1,16 @@
 """Sphinx configuration file for pip's documentation."""
 
-import glob
 import os
 import pathlib
-import re
 import sys
-from typing import List, Tuple
 
-# Add the docs/ directory to sys.path, because pip_sphinxext.py is there.
+# Add the docs/ directory to sys.path to load the common config,
+# and pip_sphinxext.py
 docs_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))
 sys.path.insert(0, docs_dir)
 
+from common_conf import copyright, project, release, version  # noqa: E402
+
 # -- General configuration ------------------------------------------------------------
 
 extensions = [
@@ -28,27 +28,10 @@
     "sphinxcontrib.towncrier",
 ]
 
-# General information about the project.
-project = "pip"
-copyright = "The pip developers"
-
-# Find the version and release information.
-# We have a single source of truth for our version number: pip's __init__.py file.
-# This next bit of code reads from it.
-file_with_version = os.path.join(docs_dir, "..", "src", "pip", "__init__.py")
-with open(file_with_version) as f:
-    for line in f:
-        m = re.match(r'__version__ = "(.*)"', line)
-        if m:
-            __version__ = m.group(1)
-            # The short X.Y version.
-            version = ".".join(__version__.split(".")[:2])
-            # The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
-            release = __version__
-            break
-    else:  # AKA no-break
-        version = release = "dev"
-
+copyright = copyright
+project = project
+version = version
+release = release
 print("pip version:", version)
 print("pip release:", release)
 
@@ -95,43 +78,6 @@
 html_use_modindex = False
 html_use_index = False
 
-# -- Options for Manual Pages ---------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-# List of manual pages generated
-def determine_man_pages() -> List[Tuple[str, str, str, str, int]]:
-    """Determine which man pages need to be generated."""
-
-    def to_document_name(path: str, base_dir: str) -> str:
-        """Convert a provided path to a Sphinx "document name"."""
-        relative_path = os.path.relpath(path, base_dir)
-        root, _ = os.path.splitext(relative_path)
-        return root.replace(os.sep, "/")
-
-    # Crawl the entire man/commands/ directory and list every file with appropriate
-    # name and details.
-    man_dir = os.path.join(docs_dir, "man")
-    raw_subcommands = glob.glob(os.path.join(man_dir, "commands/*.rst"))
-    if not raw_subcommands:
-        raise FileNotFoundError(
-            "The individual subcommand manpages could not be found!"
-        )
-
-    retval = [
-        ("index", "pip", "package manager for Python packages", "pip developers", 1),
-    ]
-    for fname in raw_subcommands:
-        fname_base = to_document_name(fname, man_dir)
-        outname = "pip-" + fname_base.split("/")[1]
-        description = "description of {} command".format(outname.replace("-", " "))
-
-        retval.append((fname_base, outname, description, "pip developers", 1))
-
-    return retval
-
-
-man_pages = determine_man_pages()
-
 # -- Options for sphinx_copybutton ----------------------------------------------------
 
 copybutton_prompt_text = r"\$ | C\:\> "
diff --git a/docs/html/requirements.txt b/docs/html/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4a5c23400a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/html/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# currently incompatible with sphinxcontrib-towncrier
+# https://github.com/sphinx-contrib/sphinxcontrib-towncrier/issues/92
+towncrier < 24
+furo
+myst_parser
+sphinx-copybutton
+sphinx-inline-tabs
+sphinxcontrib-towncrier >= 0.2.0a0
diff --git a/docs/man/conf.py b/docs/man/conf.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..178b5eb9b33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/man/conf.py
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+import glob
+import os
+import sys
+from typing import List, Tuple
+
+# Add the docs/ directory to sys.path to load the common config
+docs_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))
+sys.path.insert(0, docs_dir)
+
+from common_conf import copyright, project, release, version  # noqa: E402
+
+extensions = [
+    # our extensions
+    "pip_sphinxext",
+]
+
+copyright = copyright
+project = project
+version = version
+release = release
+print("pip version:", version)
+print("pip release:", release)
+
+
+# List of manual pages generated
+def determine_man_pages() -> List[Tuple[str, str, str, str, int]]:
+    """Determine which man pages need to be generated."""
+
+    def to_document_name(path: str, base_dir: str) -> str:
+        """Convert a provided path to a Sphinx "document name"."""
+        relative_path = os.path.relpath(path, base_dir)
+        root, _ = os.path.splitext(relative_path)
+        return root.replace(os.sep, "/")
+
+    # Crawl the entire man/commands/ directory and list every file with appropriate
+    # name and details.
+    man_dir = os.path.join(docs_dir, "man")
+    raw_subcommands = glob.glob(os.path.join(man_dir, "commands/*.rst"))
+    if not raw_subcommands:
+        raise FileNotFoundError(
+            "The individual subcommand manpages could not be found!"
+        )
+
+    retval = [
+        ("index", "pip", "package manager for Python packages", "pip developers", 1),
+    ]
+    for fname in raw_subcommands:
+        fname_base = to_document_name(fname, man_dir)
+        outname = "pip-" + fname_base.split("/")[1]
+        description = "description of {} command".format(outname.replace("-", " "))
+
+        retval.append((fname_base, outname, description, "pip developers", 1))
+
+    return retval
+
+
+man_pages = determine_man_pages()
diff --git a/docs/requirements.txt b/docs/requirements.txt
index b3ea82a9de1..35768edd252 100644
--- a/docs/requirements.txt
+++ b/docs/requirements.txt
@@ -1,12 +1,4 @@
 sphinx ~= 7.0
-# currently incompatible with sphinxcontrib-towncrier
-# https://github.com/sphinx-contrib/sphinxcontrib-towncrier/issues/92
-towncrier < 24
-furo
-myst_parser
-sphinx-copybutton
-sphinx-inline-tabs
-sphinxcontrib-towncrier >= 0.2.0a0
 
 # `docs.pipext` uses pip's internals to generate documentation. So, we install
 # the current directory to make it work.
diff --git a/noxfile.py b/noxfile.py
index 2051362769c..265355a71bd 100644
--- a/noxfile.py
+++ b/noxfile.py
@@ -131,7 +131,10 @@ def docs(session: nox.Session) -> None:
     session.install("-r", REQUIREMENTS["docs"])
 
     def get_sphinx_build_command(kind: str) -> List[str]:
-        # Having the conf.py in the docs/html is weird but needed because we
+        req_file = Path("docs").joinpath(kind, "requirements.txt")
+        if req_file.exists():
+            session.install("--requirement", str(req_file))
+        # Having the conf.py in the docs/{html,man} is weird but needed because we
         # can not use a different configuration directory vs source directory
         # on RTD currently. So, we'll pass "-c docs/html" here.
         # See https://github.com/rtfd/readthedocs.org/issues/1543.
@@ -139,10 +142,10 @@ def get_sphinx_build_command(kind: str) -> List[str]:
         return [
             "sphinx-build",
             "--keep-going",
-            "-W",
-            "-c", "docs/html",  # see note above
-            "-d", "docs/build/doctrees/" + kind,
-            "-b", kind,
+            "--fail-on-warning",
+            "--conf-dir", "docs/" + kind,  # see note above
+            "--doctree-dir", "docs/build/doctrees/" + kind,
+            "--builder", kind,
             "docs/" + kind,
             "docs/build/" + kind,
         ]