diff --git a/requirements/README.md b/requirements/README.md
index 3e03e8b135..7d557703ad 100644
--- a/requirements/README.md
+++ b/requirements/README.md
@@ -17,9 +17,6 @@ Steps to update a lock file, e.g. to update ipython from 5.3.0 to 6.0.0 in
 common.txt and propagate it to dev_lock.txt and prod_lock.txt:
 0. Replace `ipython==5.4.1` with `ipython==6.0.0` in common.txt
 1. Run './tools/update-locked-requirements'
-2. Run `./tools/provision` to install the new deps and test them
-3. Commit your changes.
-
-The reason the steps to remove the `-e` is necessary is because `pip-compile`
-doesn't support installing from vcs without `-e` yet.
-You may track the ongoing progress here https://github.com/jazzband/pip-tools/issues/355.
+2. Increase `PROVISION_VERSION` in `version.py`.
+3. Run `./tools/provision` to install the new deps and test them
+4. Commit your changes.
diff --git a/requirements/common.txt b/requirements/common.txt
index 0cb5edaade..bc2c18b9a9 100644
--- a/requirements/common.txt
+++ b/requirements/common.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# After editing this file, you MUST afterward run
+# /tools/update-locked-requirements to update requirements/dev_lock.txt
+# and requirements/prod_lock.txt.
+# See requirements/README.md for more detail.
 # Django itself; we use a slightly patched version
 Django==1.11.4
 
diff --git a/requirements/dev.txt b/requirements/dev.txt
index a280fb1507..b7e36e7718 100644
--- a/requirements/dev.txt
+++ b/requirements/dev.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# After editing this file, you MUST afterward run
+# /tools/update-locked-requirements to update requirements/dev_lock.txt.
+# See requirements/README.md for more detail.
 -r common.txt
 -r docs.txt
 
diff --git a/requirements/docs.txt b/requirements/docs.txt
index be9f4db3bf..b699a59cf0 100644
--- a/requirements/docs.txt
+++ b/requirements/docs.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 # valuable to keep this file as just the dependencies for our
 # documentation.
 
+# After editing this file, you MUST afterward run
+# /tools/update-locked-requirements to update requirements/dev_lock.txt.
+# See requirements/README.md for more detail.
+
 # Needed to build RTD docs
 sphinx==1.6.2
 sphinx-rtd-theme==0.2.4
diff --git a/requirements/mypy.txt b/requirements/mypy.txt
index 54d727f7fb..05aa7db8c4 100644
--- a/requirements/mypy.txt
+++ b/requirements/mypy.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# After editing this file, you MUST afterward run
+# /tools/update-locked-requirements to update requirements/dev_lock.txt.
+# See requirements/README.md for more detail.
 six==1.10.0
 -e git+https://github.com/python/mypy.git@d96b2cf22216a4ad6aa55a5726ee35a3fa38c637#egg=mypy==0.530-dev
 typed-ast==1.1.0
diff --git a/requirements/prod.txt b/requirements/prod.txt
index 93260d4577..6e7f97fae7 100644
--- a/requirements/prod.txt
+++ b/requirements/prod.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# After editing this file, you MUST afterward run
+# /tools/update-locked-requirements to update requirements/prod_lock.txt.
+# See requirements/README.md for more detail.
 -r common.txt
 # Used for running the Zulip production Django server
 uWSGI==2.0.14