diff --git a/doc/APIreference/functions.rst b/doc/APIreference/functions.rst
index 31bd0d6d..d304bb2a 100644
--- a/doc/APIreference/functions.rst
+++ b/doc/APIreference/functions.rst
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ mj_saveXMLString
 
 .. mujoco-include:: mj_saveXMLString
 
-Save spec to XML string, return 1 on success, 0 otherwise.
+Save spec to XML string, return 1 on success, 0 otherwise. XML saving requires that the spec first be compiled.
 
 .. _mj_saveXML:
 
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ mj_saveXML
 
 .. mujoco-include:: mj_saveXML
 
-Save spec to XML file, return 1 on success, 0 otherwise.
+Save spec to XML file, return 1 on success, 0 otherwise. XML saving requires that the spec first be compiled.
 
 .. _Mainsimulation:
 
diff --git a/doc/APIreference/functions_override.rst b/doc/APIreference/functions_override.rst
index 093a21ae..44318814 100644
--- a/doc/APIreference/functions_override.rst
+++ b/doc/APIreference/functions_override.rst
@@ -47,6 +47,14 @@ struct pointers while editing the model programmatically.
 :ref:`mj_recompile` returns 0 if compilation succeed. In the case of failure, the given :ref:`mjModel` and :ref:`mjData`
 instances will be deleted; as in :ref:`mj_compile`, the compilation error can be read with :ref:`mjs_getError`.
 
+.. _mj_saveXMLString:
+
+Save spec to XML string, return 1 on success, 0 otherwise. XML saving requires that the spec first be compiled.
+
+.. _mj_saveXML:
+
+Save spec to XML file, return 1 on success, 0 otherwise. XML saving requires that the spec first be compiled.
+
 .. _Mainsimulation:
 
 These are the main entry points to the simulator. Most users will only need to call :ref:`mj_step`, which computes