diff --git a/docs/meson.build b/docs/meson.build
index 5c0c762db1..5ffd39c01b 100644
--- a/docs/meson.build
+++ b/docs/meson.build
@@ -359,7 +359,7 @@ test(
   python3_prog,
   args: [
     check_html_references_prog.full_path(),
-    '--prefix',
+    '--webroot',
     meson.project_build_root() / 'docs'
   ],
   env: runutf8,
diff --git a/scripts/check-html-references.py b/scripts/check-html-references.py
index 95a61a6bb4..6d9116585e 100755
--- a/scripts/check-html-references.py
+++ b/scripts/check-html-references.py
@@ -127,14 +127,14 @@ def check_targets(targets, anchors):
 
 
 parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='HTML reference checker')
-parser.add_argument('--prefix', default='.',
-                    help='build tree prefix')
+parser.add_argument('--webroot', required=True,
+                    help='path to the web root')
 parser.add_argument('--external', action="store_true",
                     help='print external references instead')
 
 args = parser.parse_args()
 
-files = get_file_list(args.prefix)
+files = get_file_list(args.webroot)
 
 targets, anchors = process_all(files)