diff --git a/.changeset/red-games-decide.md b/.changeset/red-games-decide.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cbf36de833
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/red-games-decide.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@backstage/plugin-api-docs-react': major
+---
+
+Adds an api widget to render protoc-gen-doc generated descriptors by the grpc-docs package
diff --git a/plugins/api-docs-react/README.md b/plugins/api-docs-react/README.md
index f5e88314e9..3a8e099e11 100644
--- a/plugins/api-docs-react/README.md
+++ b/plugins/api-docs-react/README.md
@@ -1,40 +1,52 @@
 # @backstage/plugin-api-docs-react
 
-### Setup
+## Setup
 
-This widget will render the generated `protoc-gen-doc` descriptors with the `grpc-docs` package. For this make sure you use the `grpc-docs` as the type in the API catalog file.
-
-```yaml
-spec:
-  type: grpc-docs
-  owner: foo
-  definition:
-    $text: https://fetch-my-json.com/awesome-resource.json
+```
+yarn add @backstage/plugin-api-docs-react
 ```
 
-### Add the GrpcDocsApiWidget to your apis
+## Add the GrpcDocsApiWidget to your apis
 
 Add the widget to your `apiDocsConfigRef` in the following way. Make sure the `apiEntity.spec.type` is compared to `grpc-docs`
 
 ```ts
+import { grpcDocsApiWidget } from '@backstage/plugin-api-docs-react';
 // packages/app/apis.ts
+export const apis: AnyApiFactory[] = [
   createApiFactory({
     api: apiDocsConfigRef,
     deps: {},
     factory: () => {
       // load the default widgets
       const definitionWidgets = defaultDefinitionWidgets();
+      // add the grpc-docs api widget to the definition widgets
+      definitionWidgets.push(grpcDocsApiWidget);
       return {
         getApiDefinitionWidget: (apiEntity: ApiEntity) => {
-          // custom rendering for grpc-docs
-          if (apiEntity.spec.type === 'grpc-docs') {
-            return grpcDocsApiWidget();
-          }
-
-          // fallback to the defaults
+          // find the widget for the type of api entity
           return definitionWidgets.find(d => d.type === apiEntity.spec.type);
         },
       };
     },
   }),
+];
+```
+
+### Set the type in your api entities
+
+This widget will render the generated `protoc-gen-doc` descriptors with the `grpc-docs` package. For this make sure you use the `grpc-docs` as the type in the API catalog file.
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
+kind: API
+metadata:
+  name: hello-world
+  description: Hello World example for gRPC
+spec:
+  type: grpc-docs
+  lifecycle: deprecated
+  owner: foo
+  definition:
+    $text: https://fetch-my-json.com/awesome-resource.json
 ```
diff --git a/plugins/api-docs-react/src/widgets.tsx b/plugins/api-docs-react/src/widgets.tsx
index 7365c4d73a..cb0dadf787 100644
--- a/plugins/api-docs-react/src/widgets.tsx
+++ b/plugins/api-docs-react/src/widgets.tsx
@@ -17,12 +17,10 @@
 import React from 'react';
 import { GRPCSelfGeneratedAPIReference } from 'grpc-docs';
 
-export function grpcDocsApiWidget() {
-  return {
-    type: 'grpc-docs',
-    title: 'gRPC',
-    component: (definition: string) => (
-      <GRPCSelfGeneratedAPIReference definition={definition || ''} />
-    ),
-  };
-}
+export const grpcDocsApiWidget = {
+  type: 'grpc-docs',
+  title: 'gRPC',
+  component: (definition: string) => (
+    <GRPCSelfGeneratedAPIReference definition={definition || ''} />
+  ),
+};