diff --git a/doc/requirements.txt b/doc/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ae184484dda0545aa98130743de041a61f7173e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# These are needed for docs generation
+openstackdocstheme>=1.17.0 # Apache-2.0
+sphinx>=1.6.2 # BSD
+reno>=2.5.0 # Apache-2.0
+
+mock>=2.0.0 # BSD
+fixtures>=3.0.0 # Apache-2.0/BSD
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 54c420427d5cfaf79651ccd245e877c4f0f8db00..cb12dee267bec34e308b81fd62d2a9b731625d1c 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@ commands = flake8
 commands = {posargs}
 
 [testenv:docs]
-commands = python setup.py build_sphinx
+deps = -r{toxinidir}/doc/requirements.txt
+commands = sphinx-build -b html doc/source doc/build/html
 
 [testenv:cover]
 commands = python setup.py test --coverage --coverage-package-name=oslo_versionedobjects --testr-args='{posargs}'
@@ -44,4 +45,5 @@ deps = pip_missing_reqs
 commands = pip-missing-reqs -d --ignore-module=oslo_versionedobjects* --ignore-module=pkg_resources --ignore-file=oslo_versionedobjects/test.py --ignore-file=oslo_versionedobjects/tests/* oslo_versionedobjects
 
 [testenv:releasenotes]
+deps = -r{toxinidir}/doc/requirements.txt
 commands = sphinx-build -a -E -W -d releasenotes/build/doctrees -b html releasenotes/source releasenotes/build/html