diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index b2d535849..c4a02abe3 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -91,6 +91,7 @@ commands =
   bash -c '! find doc/ -type f -name *.json | xargs -t -n1 python -m json.tool 2>&1 > /dev/null | grep -B1 -v ^python'
   oslo-config-generator --config-file=etc/nova/nova-config-generator.conf
   sphinx-build -W -b html api-guide/source api-guide/build/html
+  sphinx-build -b html api-ref/source api-ref/build/html
 
 [testenv:api-guide]
 # This environment is called from CI scripts to test and publish
@@ -102,6 +103,20 @@ install_command = pip install -U --force-reinstall {opts} {packages}
 commands =
   sphinx-build -W -b html -d api-guide/build/doctrees api-guide/source api-guide/build/html
 
+[testenv:api-ref]
+# This environment is called from CI scripts to test and publish
+# the API Ref to developer.openstack.org.
+# NOTE(sdague): this target does not use constraints because
+# upstream infra does not yet support it. Once that's fixed, we can
+# drop the install_command.
+#
+# we do not used -W here because we are doing some slightly tricky
+# things to build a single page document, and as such, we are ok
+# ignoring the duplicate stanzas warning.
+install_command = pip install -U --force-reinstall {opts} {packages}
+commands =
+  sphinx-build -b html -d api-ref/build/doctrees api-ref/source api-ref/build/html
+
 [testenv:bandit]
 commands = bandit -c bandit.yaml -r nova -n 5 -ll