diff --git a/haddock-api/src/Haddock/Interface/Create.hs b/haddock-api/src/Haddock/Interface/Create.hs
index af006d03f3..0f24afaa6d 100644
--- a/haddock-api/src/Haddock/Interface/Create.hs
+++ b/haddock-api/src/Haddock/Interface/Create.hs
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ import Haddock.Interface.LexParseRn
 import Data.Bifunctor
 import Data.Bitraversable
 import qualified Data.Map as M
+import qualified Data.Set as S
 import Data.Map (Map)
 import Data.List (find, foldl', sortBy)
 import Data.Maybe
@@ -165,6 +166,18 @@ createInterface tm flags modMap instIfaceMap = do
 
   modWarn <- liftErrMsg (moduleWarning dflags gre warnings)
 
+  -- Prune the docstring 'Map's to keep only docstrings that are not private.
+  --
+  -- Besides all the names that GHC has told us this module exports, we also
+  -- keep the docs for locally defined class instances. This is more names than
+  -- we need, but figuring out which instances are fully private is tricky.
+  --
+  -- We do this pruning to avoid having to rename, emit warnings, and save
+  -- docstrings which will anyways never be rendered.
+  let !localVisibleNames = S.fromList (localInsts ++ exportedNames)
+      !prunedDocMap = M.restrictKeys docMap localVisibleNames
+      !prunedArgMap = M.restrictKeys argMap localVisibleNames
+
   return $! Interface {
     ifaceMod               = mdl
   , ifaceIsSig             = is_sig
@@ -173,12 +186,12 @@ createInterface tm flags modMap instIfaceMap = do
   , ifaceDoc               = Documentation mbDoc modWarn
   , ifaceRnDoc             = Documentation Nothing Nothing
   , ifaceOptions           = opts
-  , ifaceDocMap            = docMap
-  , ifaceArgMap            = argMap
-  , ifaceRnDocMap          = M.empty
-  , ifaceRnArgMap          = M.empty
+  , ifaceDocMap            = prunedDocMap
+  , ifaceArgMap            = prunedArgMap
+  , ifaceRnDocMap          = M.empty -- Filled in `renameInterface`
+  , ifaceRnArgMap          = M.empty -- Filled in `renameInterface`
   , ifaceExportItems       = prunedExportItems
-  , ifaceRnExportItems     = []
+  , ifaceRnExportItems     = [] -- Filled in `renameInterface`
   , ifaceExports           = exportedNames
   , ifaceVisibleExports    = visibleNames
   , ifaceDeclMap           = declMap
diff --git a/haddock-api/src/Haddock/Interface/Rename.hs b/haddock-api/src/Haddock/Interface/Rename.hs
index ce3878b8c0..97f128d78c 100644
--- a/haddock-api/src/Haddock/Interface/Rename.hs
+++ b/haddock-api/src/Haddock/Interface/Rename.hs
@@ -31,6 +31,14 @@ import Control.Monad hiding (mapM)
 import qualified Data.Map as Map hiding ( Map )
 import Prelude hiding (mapM)
 
+-- | Traverse docstrings and ASTs in the Haddock interface, renaming 'Name' to
+-- 'DocName'.
+--
+-- What this really boils down to is: for each 'Name', figure out which of the
+-- modules that export the name is the preferred place to link to.
+--
+-- The renamed output gets written into fields in the Haddock interface record
+-- that were previously left empty.
 renameInterface :: DynFlags -> LinkEnv -> Bool -> Interface -> ErrMsgM Interface
 renameInterface dflags renamingEnv warnings iface =
 
@@ -128,6 +136,11 @@ lookupRn name = RnM $ \lkp ->
     (False,maps_to) -> (maps_to, (name :))
     (True, maps_to) -> (maps_to, id)
 
+-- | Look up a 'Name' in the renaming environment, but don't warn if you don't
+-- find the name. Prefer to use 'lookupRn' whenever possible.
+lookupRnNoWarn :: Name -> RnM DocName
+lookupRnNoWarn name = RnM $ \lkp -> (snd (lkp name), id)
+
 -- | Run the renamer action using lookup in a 'LinkEnv' as the lookup function.
 -- Returns the renamed value along with a list of `Name`'s that could not be
 -- renamed because they weren't in the environment.
@@ -532,7 +545,7 @@ renameSig sig = case sig of
     lnames' <- mapM renameL lnames
     return $ FixSig noExtField (FixitySig noExtField lnames' fixity)
   MinimalSig _ src (L l s) -> do
-    s' <- traverse renameL s
+    s' <- traverse (traverse lookupRnNoWarn) s
     return $ MinimalSig noExtField src (L l s')
   -- we have filtered out all other kinds of signatures in Interface.Create
   _ -> error "expected TypeSig"