diff --git a/doc/source/_static/.placeholder b/doc/source/_static/.placeholder
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..781ad7e9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/_static/.placeholder
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+Sphinx 2.2.0 gets upset when a directory it is configured for does not exist.
+
+This directory is only used for automatically generated configuration and
+policy sample files.