diff --git a/roles/fetch-sphinx-tarball/tasks/html.yaml b/roles/fetch-sphinx-tarball/tasks/html.yaml
index 73c2a2759..3ef559328 100644
--- a/roles/fetch-sphinx-tarball/tasks/html.yaml
+++ b/roles/fetch-sphinx-tarball/tasks/html.yaml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
   register: html_archive
 
 - name: Archive HTML
-  command: "tar -f {{ html_archive.path }} -C {{ zuul_work_dir }}/{{ sphinx_build_dir }}/html -cj ."
+  command: "tar -f {{ html_archive.path }} -C {{ zuul_work_dir }}/{{ sphinx_build_dir }}/html --exclude=.doctrees -cj ."
   args:
     warn: false