diff --git a/requirements-min.txt b/requirements-min.txt
index d161881..766328f 100644
--- a/requirements-min.txt
+++ b/requirements-min.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# minimum versions of package dependencies for installing HDMF-ML, used in testing
 hdmf==3.5.1
 numpy==1.21
 scikit-learn==1.0
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 5147e77..847bdf3 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# pinned dependencies to reproduce an entire development environment to use HDMF-ML
 hdmf==3.13.0
 numpy==1.26.4
 scikit-learn==1.4.0