diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index b93dcfd8..d88a9782 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -68,11 +68,11 @@ testing = [
     # pytest reporting
     "pytest-reportlog ~= 0.1.2",
     "nbclient",
-    "nbmake",
+    "nbmake == 1.5.*",
 ]
 # dependencies for building documentation
 docs = [
-    "jupyter-book ~= 0.13.1",
+    "jupyter-book ~= 0.15.0",
     # "jupyter-cache ~= 0.4.3",
     "jupyter-cache",
     # the older version of nbmake goes with the older
@@ -81,8 +81,9 @@ docs = [
     "nbclient",
     "nbformat",
     # markdown in Sphinx
-    "myst-nb ~= 0.13.2",
-    "myst-parser ~= 0.15.2",
+    # we don't specify these as we assume jupyter-book will install compatible versions
+    # "myst-nb ~= 0.17.1",
+    # "myst-parser ~= 0.18.0",
 ]
 # For developers
 dev = [