diff --git a/news/10588.feature.rst b/news/10588.feature.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c8985b7a05a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/10588.feature.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Documents the ``--require-virtualenv`` flag for ``pip install``.
diff --git a/src/pip/_internal/cli/cmdoptions.py b/src/pip/_internal/cli/cmdoptions.py
index 626fd00427c..11ddc610c14 100644
--- a/src/pip/_internal/cli/cmdoptions.py
+++ b/src/pip/_internal/cli/cmdoptions.py
@@ -177,13 +177,15 @@ class PipOption(Option):
 
 require_virtualenv: Callable[..., Option] = partial(
     Option,
-    # Run only if inside a virtualenv, bail if not.
     "--require-virtualenv",
     "--require-venv",
     dest="require_venv",
     action="store_true",
     default=False,
-    help=SUPPRESS_HELP,
+    help=(
+        "Allow pip to only run in a virtual environment; "
+        "exit with an error otherwise."
+    ),
 )
 
 verbose: Callable[..., Option] = partial(