diff --git a/.github/workflows/docs.yml b/.github/workflows/docs.yml
index 2d3b2a8a1a289..a253ec153de11 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docs.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docs.yml
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build docs
         env:
           # needs to be in sync with [package.metadata.docs.rs]
+          RUSTFLAGS: --cfg docsrs_dep
           RUSTDOCFLAGS: -Zunstable-options --cfg=docsrs --generate-link-to-definition
         run: |
           cargo doc \
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 2e42dc62e40e4..f8cb386c328d0 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -3368,7 +3368,7 @@ panic = "abort"
 # impls for re-exported traits. See https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/8811
 # for details on why this is needed. Since dependencies don't expect to be built
 # with `--cfg docsrs` (and thus fail to compile) we use a different cfg.
-rustc-args = ["--cfg docsrs_dep"]
+rustc-args = ["--cfg", "docsrs_dep"]
 rustdoc-args = ["-Zunstable-options", "--generate-link-to-definition"]
 all-features = true
 cargo-args = ["-Zunstable-options", "-Zrustdoc-scrape-examples"]