diff --git a/src/schemas/json/tox.json b/src/schemas/json/tox.json
index 588bcd76c16..dc59b9f71cc 100644
--- a/src/schemas/json/tox.json
+++ b/src/schemas/json/tox.json
@@ -589,7 +589,17 @@
           "deprecated": true
         },
         "deps": {
-          "type": "string",
+          "oneOf": [
+            {
+              "type": "string"
+            },
+            {
+              "type": "array",
+              "items": {
+                "$ref": "#/definitions/subs"
+              }
+            }
+          ],
           "description": "python dependencies with optional version specifiers, as specified by PEP-440"
         },
         "dependency_groups": {
diff --git a/src/test/tox/tox-deps.toml b/src/test/tox/tox-deps.toml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5f0845537f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/tox/tox-deps.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+#:schema ../../schemas/json/tox.json
+env_list = ["py"]
+
+[env_run_base]
+description = "run tests"
+deps = ["pytest", "-r requirements.txt"]
+commands = [["python", "-m", "pytest"]]