diff --git a/requirements_test.txt b/requirements_test.txt
index 933bb8a7c7b..19a70665b56 100644
--- a/requirements_test.txt
+++ b/requirements_test.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
-flake8>=3.0.4
-pylint>=1.5.6
+# linters such as flake8 and pylint should be pinned, as new releases
+# make new things fail. Manually update these pins when pulling in a
+# new version
+flake8==3.0.4
+pylint==1.6.4
+mypy-lang==0.4.5
+pydocstyle==1.1.1
 coveralls>=1.1
 pytest>=2.9.2
 pytest-aiohttp>=0.1.3
@@ -7,7 +12,5 @@ pytest-asyncio>=0.5.0
 pytest-cov>=2.3.1
 pytest-timeout>=1.0.0
 pytest-catchlog>=1.2.2
-pydocstyle>=1.0.0
 requests_mock>=1.0
-mypy-lang>=0.4
 mock-open>=1.3.1