diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index b459e9424daa..6fc019290088 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ shell: ## launch a bash shell in a Docker container with all edx-platform depend
 REQ_FILES = \
 	requirements/edx/coverage \
 	requirements/edx/paver \
-	requirements/edx-sandbox/py38 \
+	requirements/edx-sandbox/base \
 	requirements/edx/base \
 	requirements/edx/doc \
 	requirements/edx/testing \
diff --git a/requirements/edx-sandbox/README.rst b/requirements/edx-sandbox/README.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6129aa865b31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements/edx-sandbox/README.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+edx-sandbox: a Python environment for sandboxed execution with CodeJail
+#######################################################################
+
+The requirements in this directory describe a Python environment separate from
+the general edx-platform environment. When correctly configured with
+`CodeJail <https://github.com/openedx/codejail>`_, edx-platform can use
+it to execute untrusted code, particularly instructor-authored Python code
+within ``<script type="loncapa/python">`` ProblemBlock tags.
+
+Files in this directory
+***********************
+
+base.in
+=======
+
+This is the current set of requirements or the edx-sandbox
+environment, and it is used to generate the ``.txt`` files described below.
+These requirements share some constraints with the general edx-platform
+requirements (via ``../constraints.txt``), but otherwise, they are completely
+separate.
+
+We do not recommend installing from this file directly, because
+the packages are not pinned.
+
+base.txt
+========
+
+These are the latest requirement pins for edx-sandbox.
+They are regularly updated with the latest compatible versions of each package.
+
+Install from this file if you wish to always run the latest edx-sandbox
+environment. Take note that there will periodically be breaking changes to
+``base.txt``. For example, we may update the Python version used to generate
+the pins, which may break edx-sandbox environments running older Python
+versions.
+
+releases/(RELEASE_NAME).txt
+===========================
+
+*e.g. releases/redwood.txt, releases/sumac.txt, etc.*
+
+Starting with Quince, every named Open edX release adds one of these files.
+They contain the requirement pins corresponding to ``base.txt`` at the time
+of each release.
+
+Install from one of these files if you want to run a stable edx-sandbox
+environment without breaking changes.
+
+Support windows
+***************
+
+Only ``base.txt`` and the latest ``release/*.txt`` from the latest named
+release are supported by the Open edX community. However, we will leave
+old ``release/*.txt`` files in the repository to assist:
+
+* operators who want to stagger their edx-sandbox upgrade from their general
+  edx-platform upgrade
+* operators who need to temporarily roll back their edx-sandbox environments
+  so that instructors can fix their loncapa Python code.
diff --git a/requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in b/requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
similarity index 100%
rename from requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
rename to requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
diff --git a/requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.txt b/requirements/edx-sandbox/base.txt
similarity index 74%
rename from requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.txt
rename to requirements/edx-sandbox/base.txt
index 2523bb1b1d42..c8b5cff8816e 100644
--- a/requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.txt
+++ b/requirements/edx-sandbox/base.txt
@@ -7,19 +7,19 @@
 cffi==1.16.0
     # via cryptography
 chem==1.2.0
-    # via -r requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
+    # via -r requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
 click==8.1.6
     # via
     #   -c requirements/edx-sandbox/../constraints.txt
     #   nltk
 codejail-includes==1.0.0
-    # via -r requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
+    # via -r requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
 contourpy==1.1.1
     # via matplotlib
 cryptography==38.0.4
     # via
     #   -c requirements/edx-sandbox/../constraints.txt
-    #   -r requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
+    #   -r requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
 cycler==0.12.1
     # via matplotlib
 fonttools==4.49.0
@@ -33,21 +33,21 @@ kiwisolver==1.4.5
 lxml==4.9.4
     # via
     #   -c requirements/edx-sandbox/../constraints.txt
-    #   -r requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
+    #   -r requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
     #   openedx-calc
 markupsafe==2.1.5
     # via
     #   chem
     #   openedx-calc
 matplotlib==3.7.5
-    # via -r requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
+    # via -r requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
 mpmath==1.3.0
     # via sympy
 networkx==3.1
-    # via -r requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
+    # via -r requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
 nltk==3.8.1
     # via
-    #   -r requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
+    #   -r requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
     #   chem
 numpy==1.22.4
     # via
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ numpy==1.22.4
     #   openedx-calc
     #   scipy
 openedx-calc==3.1.0
-    # via -r requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
+    # via -r requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
 packaging==23.2
     # via matplotlib
 pillow==10.2.0
@@ -66,20 +66,20 @@ pycparser==2.21
     # via cffi
 pyparsing==3.1.1
     # via
-    #   -r requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
+    #   -r requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
     #   chem
     #   matplotlib
     #   openedx-calc
 python-dateutil==2.8.2
     # via matplotlib
 random2==1.0.2
-    # via -r requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
+    # via -r requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
 regex==2023.12.25
     # via nltk
 scipy==1.7.3
     # via
     #   -c requirements/edx-sandbox/../constraints.txt
-    #   -r requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
+    #   -r requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
     #   chem
     #   openedx-calc
 six==1.16.0
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ six==1.16.0
     #   python-dateutil
 sympy==1.12
     # via
-    #   -r requirements/edx-sandbox/py38.in
+    #   -r requirements/edx-sandbox/base.in
     #   openedx-calc
 tqdm==4.66.2
     # via nltk
diff --git a/requirements/edx-sandbox/releases/.gitignore b/requirements/edx-sandbox/releases/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e69de29bb2d1