RS.CLIPPY.MISSING_PANICS_DOC

`pub fn` may panic without `# Panics` in doc comment

This checker is a Clippy lint created by The Rust Project Contributors. The documentation shown here is a copy of the original documentation for: missing_panics_doc. Copyright ©2025 The Rust Team. All rights reserved.

What it does

Checks the doc comments of publicly visible functions that may panic and warns if there is no # Panics section.

Why is this bad?

Documenting the scenarios in which panicking occurs can help callers who do not want to panic to avoid those situations.

Examples

Since the following function may panic it has a # Panics section in its doc comment:

/// # Panics
///
/// Will panic if y is 0
pub fn divide_by(x: i32, y: i32) -> i32 {
    if y == 0 {
        panic!("Cannot divide by 0")
    } else {
        x / y
    }
}

Individual panics within a function can be ignored with #[expect] or #[allow]:

pub fn will_not_panic(x: usize) {
    #[expect(clippy::missing_panics_doc, reason = "infallible")]
    let y = NonZeroUsize::new(1).unwrap();

    // If any panics are added in the future the lint will still catch them
}

Configuration

check-private-items: Whether to also run the listed lints on private items.

(default: false)