diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 90158d8e83..b1776c5676 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -1,9 +1,7 @@
-# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
-#
 # Configuration file for the Sphinx documentation builder.
 #
-# This file does only contain a selection of the most common options. For a
-# full list see the documentation:
+# This file only contains a selection of the most common options. For a full
+# list see the documentation:
 # https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/configuration.html
 
 # -- Path setup --------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -24,18 +22,12 @@
 copyright = '2013-2022, Sebastian Bank'
 author = 'Sebastian Bank'
 
-# The short X.Y version
-version = '0.20.1.dev0'
 # The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags
-release = version
+release = '0.20.1.dev0'
 
 
 # -- General configuration ---------------------------------------------------
 
-# If your documentation needs a minimal Sphinx version, state it here.
-#
-# needs_sphinx = '1.0'
-
 # Add any Sphinx extension module names here, as strings. They can be
 # extensions coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom
 # ones.
@@ -61,25 +53,9 @@ def doctest_mark_exe(**kwargs):
 # Add any paths that contain templates here, relative to this directory.
 templates_path = ['_templates']
 
-# The suffix(es) of source filenames.
-# You can specify multiple suffix as a list of string:
-#
-# source_suffix = ['.rst', '.md']
-source_suffix = '.rst'
-
-# The master toctree document.
-master_doc = 'index'
-
-# The language for content autogenerated by Sphinx. Refer to documentation
-# for a list of supported languages.
-#
-# This is also used if you do content translation via gettext catalogs.
-# Usually you set "language" from the command line for these cases.
-language = None
-
 # List of patterns, relative to source directory, that match files and
 # directories to ignore when looking for source files.
-# This pattern also affects html_static_path and html_extra_path .
+# This pattern also affects html_static_path and html_extra_path.
 exclude_patterns = ['_build', 'Thumbs.db', '.DS_Store']
 
 # The name of the Pygments (syntax highlighting) style to use.
@@ -97,84 +73,11 @@ def doctest_mark_exe(**kwargs):
     html_theme = 'sphinx_rtd_theme'
     html_theme_path = [sphinx_rtd_theme.get_html_theme_path()]
 
-# Theme options are theme-specific and customize the look and feel of a theme
-# further.  For a list of options available for each theme, see the
-# documentation.
-#
-# html_theme_options = {}
-
 # Add any paths that contain custom static files (such as style sheets) here,
 # relative to this directory. They are copied after the builtin static files,
 # so a file named "default.css" will overwrite the builtin "default.css".
 html_static_path = ['_static']
 
-# Custom sidebar templates, must be a dictionary that maps document names
-# to template names.
-#
-# The default sidebars (for documents that don't match any pattern) are
-# defined by theme itself.  Builtin themes are using these templates by
-# default: ``['localtoc.html', 'relations.html', 'sourcelink.html',
-# 'searchbox.html']``.
-#
-# html_sidebars = {}
-
-
-# -- Options for HTMLHelp output ---------------------------------------------
-
-# Output file base name for HTML help builder.
-htmlhelp_basename = 'graphvizdoc'
-
-
-# -- Options for LaTeX output ------------------------------------------------
-
-latex_elements = {
-    # The paper size ('letterpaper' or 'a4paper').
-    #
-    # 'papersize': 'letterpaper',
-
-    # The font size ('10pt', '11pt' or '12pt').
-    #
-    # 'pointsize': '10pt',
-
-    # Additional stuff for the LaTeX preamble.
-    #
-    # 'preamble': '',
-
-    # Latex figure (float) alignment
-    #
-    # 'figure_align': 'htbp',
-}
-
-# Grouping the document tree into LaTeX files. List of tuples
-# (source start file, target name, title,
-#  author, documentclass [howto, manual, or own class]).
-latex_documents = [
-    (master_doc, 'graphviz.tex', 'graphviz Documentation',
-     'Sebastian Bank', 'manual'),
-]
-
-
-# -- Options for manual page output ------------------------------------------
-
-# One entry per manual page. List of tuples
-# (source start file, name, description, authors, manual section).
-man_pages = [
-    (master_doc, 'graphviz', 'graphviz Documentation',
-     [author], 1)
-]
-
-
-# -- Options for Texinfo output ----------------------------------------------
-
-# Grouping the document tree into Texinfo files. List of tuples
-# (source start file, target name, title, author,
-#  dir menu entry, description, category)
-texinfo_documents = [
-    (master_doc, 'graphviz', 'graphviz Documentation',
-     author, 'graphviz', 'One line description of project.',
-     'Miscellaneous'),
-]
-
 
 # -- Extension configuration -------------------------------------------------
 
@@ -185,10 +88,3 @@ def doctest_mark_exe(**kwargs):
     'py': ('https://docs.python.org/3', None),
 }
 
-# monkey patch, see https://github.com/sphinx-doc/sphinx/issues/2044
-from sphinx.ext.autodoc import ClassLevelDocumenter, InstanceAttributeDocumenter
-
-def add_directive_header(self, sig):
-    ClassLevelDocumenter.add_directive_header(self, sig)
-
-InstanceAttributeDocumenter.add_directive_header = add_directive_header
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 59f5c85819..c7439de7a6 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
         'test': ['pytest>=7',
                  'pytest-mock>=3', 'mock>=4',
                  'pytest-cov', 'coverage'],
-        'docs': ['sphinx>=4,<5', 'sphinx-autodoc-typehints', 'sphinx-rtd-theme'],
+        'docs': ['sphinx>=5', 'sphinx-autodoc-typehints', 'sphinx-rtd-theme'],
     },
     long_description=pathlib.Path('README.rst').read_text(encoding='utf-8'),
     classifiers=[