diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/metadump_fix.yml b/changelogs/fragments/metadump_fix.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..164c8022ac6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/metadump_fix.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - ansible-doc, fix output for internal metadata dump option
diff --git a/lib/ansible/cli/doc.py b/lib/ansible/cli/doc.py
index ff24db699e5..2ed1cbbfcf2 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/cli/doc.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/cli/doc.py
@@ -647,7 +647,7 @@ class DocCLI(CLI, RoleMixin):
 
         basedir = context.CLIARGS['basedir']
         plugin_type = context.CLIARGS['type']
-        do_json = context.CLIARGS['json_format']
+        do_json = context.CLIARGS['json_format'] or context.CLIARGS['dump']
         roles_path = context.CLIARGS['roles_path']
         listing = context.CLIARGS['list_files'] or context.CLIARGS['list_dir'] or context.CLIARGS['dump']
         docs = {}
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/ansible-doc/runme.sh b/test/integration/targets/ansible-doc/runme.sh
index 4a6f6820bcd..549a341b9d6 100755
--- a/test/integration/targets/ansible-doc/runme.sh
+++ b/test/integration/targets/ansible-doc/runme.sh
@@ -99,3 +99,6 @@ test "$current_out" == "$expected_out"
 current_out="$(ansible-doc --json --playbook-dir ./ -t vars testns.testcol.noop_vars_plugin | sed 's/ *$//' | sed 's/ *"filename": "[^"]*",$//')"
 expected_out="$(sed 's/ *"filename": "[^"]*",$//' noop_vars_plugin.output)"
 test "$current_out" == "$expected_out"
+
+# just ensure it runs
+ANSIBLE_LIBRARY='./nolibrary' ansible-doc --metadata-dump --playbook-dir /dev/null