diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 2a93e61d3e..8410b9b0b3 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ def skip_submodules(
       ) -> bool:
     # Skip documenting zarr.codecs submodules
     # codecs are documented in the main zarr.codecs namespace
-    if what == "module" and name.startswith("zarr.codecs."):
+    if what == "module" and name.startswith("zarr.codecs.") or name.startswith("zarr.core"):
         skip = True
     return skip
 
diff --git a/docs/user-guide/config.rst b/docs/user-guide/config.rst
index a17bce9d99..871291b72b 100644
--- a/docs/user-guide/config.rst
+++ b/docs/user-guide/config.rst
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 Runtime configuration
 =====================
 
-:mod:`zarr.config <zarr.core.config>` is responsible for managing the configuration of zarr and
+``zarr.config`` is responsible for managing the configuration of zarr and
 is based on the `donfig <https://github.com/pytroll/donfig>`_ Python library.
 
 Configuration values can be set using code like the following::
diff --git a/src/zarr/core/__init__.py b/src/zarr/core/__init__.py
index cbacfe3422..03a108dbbf 100644
--- a/src/zarr/core/__init__.py
+++ b/src/zarr/core/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+"""
+The ``zarr.core`` module is considered private API and should not be imported
+directly by 3rd-party code.
+"""
+
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 from zarr.core.buffer import Buffer, NDBuffer  # noqa: F401