diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/fix-cli-doc-path_undefined.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/fix-cli-doc-path_undefined.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9a62bf77383
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/fix-cli-doc-path_undefined.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+- ansible-doc - If none of the files in files exists, path will be undefined and a direct reference will throw an UnboundLocalError (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/84464).
diff --git a/lib/ansible/cli/doc.py b/lib/ansible/cli/doc.py
index 52ec8a6c7b1..6efe0319e5f 100755
--- a/lib/ansible/cli/doc.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/cli/doc.py
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ class RoleMixin(object):
         """ Load and process the YAML for the first found of a set of role files
 
         :param str root: The root path to get the files from
-        :param str files: List of candidate file names in order of precedence
+        :param list files: List of candidate file names in order of precedence
         :param str role_name: The name of the role for which we want the argspec data.
         :param str collection: collection name or None in case of stand alone roles
 
@@ -117,6 +117,7 @@ class RoleMixin(object):
             meta_path = os.path.join(root, 'meta')
 
         # Check all potential spec files
+        path = None
         for specfile in files:
             full_path = os.path.join(meta_path, specfile)
             if os.path.exists(full_path):