diff --git a/Documentation/Doxyfile.in b/Documentation/Doxyfile.in
index 28a9c2da1ad4..5237cf60854f 100644
--- a/Documentation/Doxyfile.in
+++ b/Documentation/Doxyfile.in
@@ -793,7 +793,9 @@ WARN_LOGFILE           =
 
 INPUT                  = "@TOP_SRCDIR@/include/ipa" \
 			 "@TOP_SRCDIR@/include/libcamera" \
-			 "@TOP_SRCDIR@/src/libcamera"
+			 "@TOP_SRCDIR@/src/libcamera" \
+			 "@TOP_BUILDDIR@/include/libcamera" \
+			 "@TOP_BUILDDIR@/src/libcamera"
 
 # This tag can be used to specify the character encoding of the source files
 # that doxygen parses. Internally doxygen uses the UTF-8 encoding. Doxygen uses
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 169837e41a4e..2ccf7cbec40a 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ A C++ toolchain: [required]
 	Either {g++, clang}
 
 for libcamera: [required]
-	meson ninja-build
+	meson ninja-build python3-yaml
 
 for device hotplug enumeration: [optional]
 	pkg-config libudev-dev
diff --git a/include/libcamera/control_ids.h b/include/libcamera/control_ids.h.in
similarity index 53%
rename from include/libcamera/control_ids.h
rename to include/libcamera/control_ids.h.in
index 54235f1aea95..1d0bc791e559 100644
--- a/include/libcamera/control_ids.h
+++ b/include/libcamera/control_ids.h.in
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
  * Copyright (C) 2019, Google Inc.
  *
  * control_ids.h : Control ID list
+ *
+ * This file is auto-generated. Do not edit.
  */
 
 #ifndef __LIBCAMERA_CONTROL_IDS_H__
@@ -17,20 +19,10 @@ namespace libcamera {
 namespace controls {
 
 enum {
-	AWB_ENABLE = 1,
-	BRIGHTNESS = 2,
-	CONTRAST = 3,
-	SATURATION = 4,
-	MANUAL_EXPOSURE = 5,
-	MANUAL_GAIN = 6,
+${ids}
 };
 
-extern const Control<bool> AwbEnable;
-extern const Control<int32_t> Brightness;
-extern const Control<int32_t> Contrast;
-extern const Control<int32_t> Saturation;
-extern const Control<int32_t> ManualExposure;
-extern const Control<int32_t> ManualGain;
+${controls}
 
 } /* namespace controls */
 
diff --git a/include/libcamera/gen-header.sh b/include/libcamera/gen-header.sh
index a69fe8e982a1..7f7816c9f879 100755
--- a/include/libcamera/gen-header.sh
+++ b/include/libcamera/gen-header.sh
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ EOF
 headers=$(for header in "$src_dir"/*.h ; do
 	header=$(basename "$header")
 	echo "$header"
-done ; echo "version.h" | sort)
+done ; echo "control_ids.h" ; echo "version.h" | sort)
 
 for header in $headers ; do
 	echo "#include <libcamera/$header>" >> "$dst_file"
diff --git a/include/libcamera/meson.build b/include/libcamera/meson.build
index 868f1a6bf1ab..4ffbdab3b173 100644
--- a/include/libcamera/meson.build
+++ b/include/libcamera/meson.build
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ libcamera_api = files([
     'buffer.h',
     'camera.h',
     'camera_manager.h',
-    'control_ids.h',
     'controls.h',
     'event_dispatcher.h',
     'event_notifier.h',
@@ -18,6 +17,20 @@ libcamera_api = files([
 
 include_dir = join_paths(libcamera_include_dir, 'libcamera')
 
+install_headers(libcamera_api,
+                subdir : include_dir)
+
+gen_controls = files('../../src/libcamera/gen-controls.py')
+
+control_ids_h = custom_target('control_ids_h',
+                              input : files('../../src/libcamera/control_ids.yaml', 'control_ids.h.in'),
+                              output : 'control_ids.h',
+                              depend_files : gen_controls,
+                              command : [gen_controls, '-o', '@OUTPUT@', '@INPUT@'],
+                              install_dir : join_paths('include', include_dir))
+
+libcamera_api += control_ids_h
+
 gen_header = files('gen-header.sh')
 
 libcamera_h = custom_target('gen-header',
@@ -37,6 +50,3 @@ configure_file(input : 'version.h.in',
                output : 'version.h',
                configuration : libcamera_version_config,
                install_dir : join_paths('include', include_dir))
-
-install_headers(libcamera_api,
-                subdir : include_dir)
diff --git a/package/gentoo/media-libs/libcamera/libcamera-9999.ebuild b/package/gentoo/media-libs/libcamera/libcamera-9999.ebuild
index fed2b409a91b..fc241b1f5584 100644
--- a/package/gentoo/media-libs/libcamera/libcamera-9999.ebuild
+++ b/package/gentoo/media-libs/libcamera/libcamera-9999.ebuild
@@ -2,7 +2,9 @@
 # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
 
 EAPI=6
-inherit git-r3 meson
+PYTHON_COMPAT=( python3_{5,6,7} )
+
+inherit git-r3 meson python-any-r1
 
 DESCRIPTION="Camera support library for Linux"
 HOMEPAGE="http://libcamera.org"
@@ -15,7 +17,10 @@ KEYWORDS="*"
 IUSE="udev"
 
 RDEPEND="udev? ( virtual/libudev )"
-DEPEND="${RDEPEND}"
+DEPEND="
+	${RDEPEND}
+	$(python_gen_any_dep 'dev-python/pyyaml[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]')
+"
 
 src_configure() {
 	local emesonargs=(
diff --git a/src/libcamera/control_ids.cpp b/src/libcamera/control_ids.cpp
deleted file mode 100644
index 3af23a458862..000000000000
--- a/src/libcamera/control_ids.cpp
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,52 +0,0 @@
-/* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
-/*
- * Copyright (C) 2019, Google Inc.
- *
- * control_ids.cpp : Control ID list
- */
-
-#include <libcamera/control_ids.h>
-
-/**
- * \file control_ids.h
- * \brief Camera control identifiers
- */
-
-namespace libcamera {
-
-namespace controls {
-
-/**
- * \brief Enables or disables the AWB.
- * \sa ManualGain
- */
-extern const Control<bool> AwbEnable(AWB_ENABLE, "AwbEnable");
-
-/**
- * \brief Specify a fixed brightness parameter.
- */
-extern const Control<int32_t> Brightness(BRIGHTNESS, "Brightness");
-
-/**
- * \brief Specify a fixed contrast parameter.
- */
-extern const Control<int32_t> Contrast(CONTRAST, "Contrast");
-
-/**
- * \brief Specify a fixed saturation parameter.
- */
-extern const Control<int32_t> Saturation(SATURATION, "Saturation");
-
-/**
- * \brief Specify a fixed exposure time in milli-seconds
- */
-extern const Control<int32_t> ManualExposure(MANUAL_EXPOSURE, "ManualExposure");
-
-/**
- * \brief Specify a fixed gain parameter
- */
-extern const Control<int32_t> ManualGain(MANUAL_GAIN, "ManualGain");
-
-} /* namespace controls */
-
-} /* namespace libcamera */
diff --git a/src/libcamera/control_ids.cpp.in b/src/libcamera/control_ids.cpp.in
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f699ac9eea54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/libcamera/control_ids.cpp.in
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2019, Google Inc.
+ *
+ * control_ids.cpp : Control ID list
+ *
+ * This file is auto-generated. Do not edit.
+ */
+
+#include <libcamera/control_ids.h>
+
+/**
+ * \file control_ids.h
+ * \brief Camera control identifiers
+ */
+
+namespace libcamera {
+
+namespace controls {
+
+${controls}
+
+} /* namespace controls */
+
+} /* namespace libcamera */
diff --git a/src/libcamera/control_ids.yaml b/src/libcamera/control_ids.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..819a5967a2fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/libcamera/control_ids.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2019, Google Inc.
+#
+%YAML 1.2
+---
+controls:
+  - AwbEnable:
+      type: bool
+      description: |
+        Enables or disables the AWB.
+
+        \sa ManualGain
+
+  - Brightness:
+      type: int32_t
+      description: Specify a fixed brightness parameter
+
+  - Contrast:
+      type: int32_t
+      description: Specify a fixed contrast parameter
+
+  - Saturation:
+      type: int32_t
+      description: Specify a fixed saturation parameter
+
+  - ManualExposure:
+      type: int32_t
+      description: Specify a fixed exposure time in milli-seconds
+
+  - ManualGain:
+      type: int32_t
+      description: Specify a fixed gain parameter
+
+...
diff --git a/src/libcamera/gen-controls.py b/src/libcamera/gen-controls.py
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..0899e40b4080
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/libcamera/gen-controls.py
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python3
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
+# Copyright (C) 2019, Google Inc.
+#
+# Author: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>
+#
+# gen-controls.py - Generate control definitions from YAML
+
+import argparse
+import string
+import sys
+import yaml
+
+
+def snake_case(s):
+    return ''.join([c.isupper() and ('_' + c) or c for c in s]).strip('_')
+
+
+def generate_cpp(controls):
+    template = string.Template('''/**
+${description}
+ */
+extern const Control<${type}> ${name}(${id_name}, "${name}");''')
+
+    ctrls = []
+
+    for ctrl in controls:
+        name, ctrl = ctrl.popitem()
+        id_name = snake_case(name).upper()
+
+        description = ctrl['description'].strip('\n').split('\n')
+        description[0] = '\\brief ' + description[0]
+        description = '\n'.join([(line and ' * ' or ' *') + line for line in description])
+
+        info = {
+            'name': name,
+            'type': ctrl['type'],
+            'description': description,
+            'id_name': id_name,
+        }
+
+        ctrls.append(template.substitute(info))
+
+    return {'controls': '\n\n'.join(ctrls)}
+
+
+def generate_h(controls):
+    template = string.Template('''extern const Control<${type}> ${name};''')
+
+    ctrls = []
+    ids = []
+    id_value = 1
+
+    for ctrl in controls:
+        name, ctrl = ctrl.popitem()
+        id_name = snake_case(name).upper()
+
+        ids.append('\t' + id_name + ' = ' + str(id_value) + ',')
+
+        info = {
+            'name': name,
+            'type': ctrl['type'],
+        }
+
+        ctrls.append(template.substitute(info))
+        id_value += 1
+
+    return {'ids': '\n'.join(ids), 'controls': '\n'.join(ctrls)}
+
+
+def fill_template(template, data):
+
+    template = open(template, 'rb').read()
+    template = template.decode('utf-8')
+    template = string.Template(template)
+    return template.substitute(data)
+
+
+def main(argv):
+
+    # Parse command line arguments
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+    parser.add_argument('-o', dest='output', metavar='file', type=str,
+                        help='Output file name. Defaults to standard output if not specified.')
+    parser.add_argument('input', type=str,
+                        help='Input file name.')
+    parser.add_argument('template', type=str,
+                        help='Template file name.')
+    args = parser.parse_args(argv[1:])
+
+    data = open(args.input, 'rb').read()
+    controls = yaml.safe_load(data)['controls']
+
+    if args.template.endswith('.cpp.in'):
+        data = generate_cpp(controls)
+    elif args.template.endswith('.h.in'):
+        data = generate_h(controls)
+    else:
+        raise RuntimeError('Unknown template type')
+
+    data = fill_template(args.template, data)
+
+    if args.output:
+        output = open(args.output, 'wb')
+        output.write(data.encode('utf-8'))
+        output.close()
+    else:
+        sys.stdout.write(data)
+
+    return 0
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    sys.exit(main(sys.argv))
diff --git a/src/libcamera/meson.build b/src/libcamera/meson.build
index 8123d1d5bee9..6df48365266d 100644
--- a/src/libcamera/meson.build
+++ b/src/libcamera/meson.build
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ libcamera_sources = files([
     'camera_manager.cpp',
     'camera_sensor.cpp',
     'controls.cpp',
-    'control_ids.cpp',
     'device_enumerator.cpp',
     'device_enumerator_sysfs.cpp',
     'event_dispatcher.cpp',
@@ -58,6 +57,17 @@ if libudev.found()
     ])
 endif
 
+gen_controls = files('gen-controls.py')
+
+control_ids_cpp = custom_target('control_ids_cpp',
+                                input : files('control_ids.yaml', 'control_ids.cpp.in'),
+                                output : 'control_ids.cpp',
+                                depend_files : gen_controls,
+                                command : [gen_controls, '-o', '@OUTPUT@', '@INPUT@'])
+
+libcamera_sources += control_ids_cpp
+#libcamera_sources += control_ids_h
+
 gen_version = join_paths(meson.source_root(), 'utils', 'gen-version.sh')
 
 version_cpp = vcs_tag(command : [gen_version, meson.build_root()],
