diff --git a/.github/actions/docs-prerequisites/action.yml b/.github/actions/docs-prerequisites/action.yml
index a75f83723d..c52a8fbfc2 100644
--- a/.github/actions/docs-prerequisites/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/docs-prerequisites/action.yml
@@ -3,6 +3,6 @@ description: 'Downloads all the necessary packages for building documentation'
 runs:
   using: composite
   steps:
-    - uses: prefix-dev/setup-pixi@v0.8.1
+    - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
       with:
-        environments: docs
+        node-version: 20
diff --git a/.github/actions/generate-doc/action.yml b/.github/actions/generate-doc/action.yml
index 0badbdb11b..dff8544db2 100644
--- a/.github/actions/generate-doc/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/generate-doc/action.yml
@@ -11,7 +11,9 @@ runs:
         # BOOST_SRC_DIR (cross-library headers for MrDocs) comes from
         # ../boost-root.
         export BOOST_SRC_DIR="$(cd ../boost-root && pwd)"
-        pixi run -e docs docs-build
+        cd doc
+        bash build_antora.sh
+        cd ..
         chmod +x $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/.github/actions/generate-doc/docs-config.sh
         $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/.github/actions/generate-doc/docs-config.sh
       shell: bash
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index bbc4675887..6e91d0a50b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@ stdcerr
 /doc/build/
 /io/output
 
-# Documentation (Antora + Doxygen)
+# Documentation (Antora + MrDocs)
+.tools
 doc/html
 doc/warnings.txt
 doc/node_modules
diff --git a/doc/README.md b/doc/README.md
index dc5614c2b5..f078ff425b 100644
--- a/doc/README.md
+++ b/doc/README.md
@@ -3,17 +3,18 @@
 A simple guide about writing and building documentation for Boost.GIL.
 
 The documentation is written in AsciiDoc and built with [Antora](https://antora.org/).
-The C++ API reference is still generated with [Doxygen](https://www.doxygen.org)
-(see `doxyfile`) and stitched into the Antora site by
-`modules/ROOT/pages/reference.adoc` — this library is expected to move to a
-[MrDocs](https://github.com/cppalliance/mrdocs)-generated, AsciiDoc-native
-reference once an upstream MrDocs crash on GIL's header patterns is fixed;
-see `mrdocs.yml` for details.
+The C++ API reference is generated from the header comments with
+[MrDocs](https://github.com/cppalliance/mrdocs) (see `mrdocs.yml` and
+`mrdocs-src/all.cpp`) and wired into the Antora site as the `reference:`
+module, with `modules/ROOT/pages/reference.adoc` as a curated landing page
+into it. MrDocs itself isn't a build dependency here -- it's downloaded
+automatically by the `@cppalliance/antora-cpp-reference-extension` Antora
+extension the first time the reference is built.
 
 ## Prerequisites
 
 - [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/) 20+ (for Antora)
-- [Doxygen](https://www.doxygen.org)
+- A C++ compiler (for MrDocs to parse GIL's headers)
 
 Both are available through the repository's `pixi.toml` under the `docs`
 environment; from the repository root:
diff --git a/doc/build_antora.sh b/doc/build_antora.sh
index 6d9c8c4568..8fd11624d4 100644
--- a/doc/build_antora.sh
+++ b/doc/build_antora.sh
@@ -26,19 +26,6 @@ fi
 export BOOST_SRC_DIR="${BOOST_SRC_DIR:-$(realpath "$SCRIPT_DIR/../../..")}"
 echo "Using BOOST_SRC_DIR=$BOOST_SRC_DIR"
 
-# Pin the @cppalliance/antora-cpp-reference-extension to a local MrDocs
-# instead of it downloading the latest GitHub release, which as of this
-# writing still segfaults on GIL's headers (upstream fix not released yet).
-# When running under `pixi run -e docs`, CONDA_PREFIX/bin/mrdocs is the
-# package from the sdebionne/label/esrf-bcu channel (see pixi.toml), which
-# repackages the fixed dev build. Falls through to auto-download otherwise.
-if [ -z "${MRDOCS_ROOT:-}" ] && [ -n "${CONDA_PREFIX:-}" ] && [ -x "$CONDA_PREFIX/bin/mrdocs" ]; then
-  export MRDOCS_ROOT="$CONDA_PREFIX"
-fi
-if [ -n "${MRDOCS_ROOT:-}" ]; then
-  echo "Using MRDOCS_ROOT=$MRDOCS_ROOT"
-fi
-
 echo "Generating the MrDocs compilation database..."
 # See mrdocs.yml / mrdocs-src/all.cpp: a single translation unit is enough
 # for MrDocs to extract the whole public API, and is far faster than trying
diff --git a/doc/local-playbook.yml b/doc/local-playbook.yml
index 768ac3499e..d5e92e275d 100644
--- a/doc/local-playbook.yml
+++ b/doc/local-playbook.yml
@@ -47,11 +47,14 @@ output:
 
 runtime:
   log:
-    # `fatal`, not `error`: some MrDocs-generated reference pages link to
-    # private-member sub-pages (e.g. packed_pixel's `_bitfield`) that MrDocs
-    # doesn't actually emit, regardless of extract-private -- a small,
-    # cosmetic upstream issue unrelated to this migration, logged as `error`
-    # by Antora. `failure_level` is a floor, not a ceiling: `error` messages
-    # still fail the build at `warn`. Once the MrDocs issue is fixed this
-    # should go back to `error`.
+    # `fatal`, not `error`: MrDocs still has an open bug where some generated
+    # reference pages link to private-member sub-pages it never actually
+    # emits (github.com/cppalliance/mrdocs/issues/1277). On top of that,
+    # @cppalliance/antora-cpp-reference-extension's release-selection logic
+    # always considers cppalliance/mrdocs' rolling `develop`/`master` release
+    # tags first regardless of any `version:` pin here, so the exact MrDocs
+    # build used isn't pinned and can vary run to run. Don't let the
+    # resulting dangling-xref noise hard-fail the build; a real extraction
+    # failure still raises above `fatal`. Safe to tighten back to `error`
+    # once #1277 is closed.
     failure_level: fatal
diff --git a/doc/mrdocs.yml b/doc/mrdocs.yml
index fe4f419785..327e6a414c 100644
--- a/doc/mrdocs.yml
+++ b/doc/mrdocs.yml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 #
 # Official repository: https://github.com/boostorg/gil
 #
-# Wired into antora.yml as ext: cpp-reference: config: doc/mrdocs.yml.
+# Wired into antora.yml as ext: cppReference: config: doc/mrdocs.yml.
 #
 # GIL's extension/io/{jpeg,png,tiff,bmp,pnm,raw} backends need the matching
 # external image libraries just to parse, so mrdocs-src/all.cpp deliberately
@@ -17,9 +17,9 @@
 #
 # `compilation-database` is generated by build_antora.sh (gitignored) since
 # it needs the resolved $BOOST_SRC_DIR baked into its include path. The file
-# must be literally named `compile_commands.json` -- MrDocs 0.8.0+47bdd690824e
-# silently rejects any other basename with "Invalid compilation database
-# path", even given as an absolute path to a file that exists and parses.
+# must be literally named `compile_commands.json` -- MrDocs silently rejects
+# any other basename with "Invalid compilation database path", even given
+# as an absolute path to a file that exists and parses.
 
 source-root: ..
 input:
diff --git a/pixi.lock b/pixi.lock
index ba1c3e5aea..6a6a9f3e86 100644
--- a/pixi.lock
+++ b/pixi.lock
@@ -9,12 +9,10 @@ platforms:
 environments:
   default:
     channels:
-    - url: https://conda.anaconda.org/sdebionne/label/esrf-bcu/
     - url: https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
     packages: {}
   docs:
     channels:
-    - url: https://conda.anaconda.org/sdebionne/label/esrf-bcu/
     - url: https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/
     packages:
       linux-64:
@@ -44,7 +42,6 @@ environments:
       - conda: https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/noarch/libstdcxx-devel_linux-64-15.3.0-hb2c5482_104.conda
       - conda: https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/noarch/sysroot_linux-64-2.28-h4ee821c_9.conda
       - conda: https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/noarch/tzdata-2026c-h151e31d_0.conda
-      - conda: https://conda.anaconda.org/sdebionne/label/esrf-bcu/linux-64/mrdocs-0.8.0-hb0f4dca_0.conda
 packages:
 - conda: https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/linux-64/_openmp_mutex-4.5-20_gnu.conda
   build_number: 20
@@ -373,9 +370,3 @@ packages:
   run_exports: {}
   size: 118849
   timestamp: 1784250406640
-- conda: https://conda.anaconda.org/sdebionne/label/esrf-bcu/linux-64/mrdocs-0.8.0-hb0f4dca_0.conda
-  sha256: e94797f3625b895e0ae0fc8c9edb6d750531416fb216608d60ad990efcf24210
-  md5: ba3589b52b90663769840e331ee33b3e
-  license: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception
-  size: 54790420
-  timestamp: 1788428774442
diff --git a/pixi.toml b/pixi.toml
index 869546f41d..2ccd6cdacc 100644
--- a/pixi.toml
+++ b/pixi.toml
@@ -6,14 +6,14 @@
 #
 # Official repository: https://github.com/boostorg/gil
 #
-# Tooling for building the documentation (doc/). See doc/build_antora.sh.
-# `mrdocs` comes from a personal channel repackaging a fixed MrDocs dev
-# build (0.8.0+47bdd690824e) -- see doc/mrdocs.yml and the upstream issue
-# at https://github.com/cppalliance/mrdocs/issues for the segfault it fixes.
-# Drop this dependency once that fix is in an official MrDocs release.
+# Tooling for building the documentation (doc/) locally. See
+# doc/build_antora.sh -- MrDocs itself is fetched automatically by
+# @cppalliance/antora-cpp-reference-extension (the latest release, as of
+# MrDocs 2026.9.4 that's a fixed build for GIL's headers), so it isn't a
+# pixi dependency.
 
 [workspace]
-channels = ["sdebionne/label/esrf-bcu", "conda-forge"]
+channels = ["conda-forge"]
 name = "gil"
 platforms = ["linux-64"]
 version = "0.1.0"
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ version = "0.1.0"
 [feature.docs.dependencies]
 nodejs = "20.*"
 cxx-compiler = "*"
-mrdocs = "*"
 
 [feature.docs.tasks]
 docs-build = "cd doc && bash build_antora.sh"