diff --git a/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml b/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml
index 56b34d6c5e7b..00aacfa1b562 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml
@@ -761,6 +761,9 @@ jobs:
       run: ./dev/lint-r
     - name: Run documentation build
       run: |
+        # Build docs first with SKIP_API to ensure they are buildable without requiring any
+        # language docs to be built beforehand.
+        cd docs; SKIP_API=1 bundle exec jekyll build; cd ..
         if [ -f "./dev/is-changed.py" ]; then
           # Skip PySpark and SparkR docs while keeping Scala/Java/SQL docs
           pyspark_modules=`cd dev && python3.9 -c "import sparktestsupport.modules as m; print(','.join(m.name for m in m.all_modules if m.name.startswith('pyspark')))"`