diff --git a/documentation/ref-manual/variables.rst b/documentation/ref-manual/variables.rst
index 5a34ea7856..a75581f2fd 100644
--- a/documentation/ref-manual/variables.rst
+++ b/documentation/ref-manual/variables.rst
@@ -6463,6 +6463,22 @@ system and gives an overview of their function and contents.
       BitBake User Manual for additional information on tasks and
       dependencies.
 
+   :term:`RECIPE_MAINTAINER`
+      This variable defines the name and e-mail address of the maintainer of a
+      recipe. Such information can be used by human users submitted changes,
+      and by automated tools to send notifications, for example about
+      vulnerabilities or source updates.
+
+      The variable can be defined in a global distribution :oe_git:`maintainers.inc
+      </openembedded-core/tree/meta/conf/distro/include/maintainers.inc>` file::
+
+          meta/conf/distro/include/maintainers.inc:RECIPE_MAINTAINER:pn-sysvinit = "Ross Burton <ross.burton@arm.com>"
+
+      It can also be directly defined in a recipe,
+      for example in the ``libgpiod`` one::
+
+          RECIPE_MAINTAINER = "Bartosz Golaszewski <brgl@bgdev.pl>"
+
    :term:`RECIPE_NO_UPDATE_REASON`
       If a recipe should not be replaced by a more recent upstream version,
       putting the reason why in this variable in a recipe allows