diff --git a/changelog/4974.doc.rst b/changelog/4974.doc.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..74799c9b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/4974.doc.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Update docs for ``pytest_cmdline_parse`` hook to note availability liminations
diff --git a/src/_pytest/hookspec.py b/src/_pytest/hookspec.py
index 28eb06b03..4daef9178 100644
--- a/src/_pytest/hookspec.py
+++ b/src/_pytest/hookspec.py
@@ -99,8 +99,8 @@ def pytest_cmdline_parse(pluginmanager, args):
     Stops at first non-None result, see :ref:`firstresult`
 
     .. note::
-        This hook will not be called for ``conftest.py`` files, only for setuptools plugins or
-        modules which implement this hook and are early-loaded with the ``-p`` flag.
+        This hook will only be called for plugin classes passed to the ``plugins`` arg when using `pytest.main`_ to
+        perform an in-process test run.
 
     :param _pytest.config.PytestPluginManager pluginmanager: pytest plugin manager
     :param list[str] args: list of arguments passed on the command line