diff --git a/docs/designers-developers/developers/slotfills/plugin-document-setting-panel.md b/docs/designers-developers/developers/slotfills/plugin-document-setting-panel.md
index 25a5ab915cb54..b0bb15e5363d9 100644
--- a/docs/designers-developers/developers/slotfills/plugin-document-setting-panel.md
+++ b/docs/designers-developers/developers/slotfills/plugin-document-setting-panel.md
@@ -30,3 +30,13 @@ registerPlugin( 'plugin-document-setting-panel-demo', {
 	icon: 'palmtree',
 } );
 ```
+## Accessing a panel programmatically
+
+Custom panels are namespaced with the plugin name that was passed to `registerPlugin`.
+In order to access the panels using function such as `wp.data.dispatch( 'core/edit-post' ).toggleEditorPanelOpened` or `wp.data.dispatch( 'core/edit-post' ).toggleEditorPanelEnabled` be sure to prepend the namepace.
+
+To programmatically toggle the custom panel added in the example above, use the following:
+
+```js
+wp.data.dispatch( 'core/edit-post' ).toggleEditorPanelOpened( 'plugin-document-setting-panel-demo/custom-panel' );
+```
diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
index 1224a12c0cf1e..91381d3c2a86e 100644
--- a/package-lock.json
+++ b/package-lock.json
@@ -10839,6 +10839,7 @@
 				"@wordpress/primitives": "file:packages/primitives",
 				"@wordpress/url": "file:packages/url",
 				"@wordpress/viewport": "file:packages/viewport",
+				"@wordpress/warning": "file:packages/warning",
 				"classnames": "^2.2.5",
 				"lodash": "^4.17.15",
 				"memize": "^1.1.0",
diff --git a/packages/edit-post/package.json b/packages/edit-post/package.json
index 12b0758a3ea8d..bb2ffd25d20b0 100644
--- a/packages/edit-post/package.json
+++ b/packages/edit-post/package.json
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@
 		"@wordpress/primitives": "file:../primitives",
 		"@wordpress/url": "file:../url",
 		"@wordpress/viewport": "file:../viewport",
+		"@wordpress/warning": "file:../warning",
 		"classnames": "^2.2.5",
 		"lodash": "^4.17.15",
 		"memize": "^1.1.0",
diff --git a/packages/edit-post/src/components/sidebar/plugin-document-setting-panel/index.js b/packages/edit-post/src/components/sidebar/plugin-document-setting-panel/index.js
index 56133e8162aad..c83b42f2bee57 100644
--- a/packages/edit-post/src/components/sidebar/plugin-document-setting-panel/index.js
+++ b/packages/edit-post/src/components/sidebar/plugin-document-setting-panel/index.js
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import { createSlotFill, PanelBody } from '@wordpress/components';
 import { compose } from '@wordpress/compose';
 import { withPluginContext } from '@wordpress/plugins';
 import { withDispatch, withSelect } from '@wordpress/data';
+import warning from '@wordpress/warning';
 
 /**
  * Internal dependencies
@@ -104,6 +105,9 @@ const PluginDocumentSettingFill = ( {
  */
 const PluginDocumentSettingPanel = compose(
 	withPluginContext( ( context, ownProps ) => {
+		if ( undefined === ownProps.name ) {
+			warning( 'PluginDocumentSettingPanel requires a name property.' );
+		}
 		return {
 			icon: ownProps.icon || context.icon,
 			panelName: `${ context.name }/${ ownProps.name }`,