diff --git a/tests/sandbox/weight_sync/main.py b/tests/sandbox/weight_sync/main.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..dfdc58f0a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/sandbox/weight_sync/main.py
@@ -0,0 +1,205 @@
+# Copyright (c) Meta Platforms, Inc. and affiliates.
+# All rights reserved.
+#
+# This source code is licensed under the BSD-style license found in the
+# LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
+
+"""
+Weight Sync Sandbox
+
+A minimal test environment focused exclusively on testing the weight synchronization
+mechanism between RLTrainer and Generator.
+
+Usage:
+    python -m tests.sandbox.weight_sync.main --config tests/sandbox/weight_sync/qwen3_1_7b.yaml
+"""
+
+import asyncio
+import time
+
+import torch
+import torchstore as ts
+from forge.actors._torchstore_utils import rdma_enabled
+from forge.actors.generator import Generator
+from forge.actors.trainer import RLTrainer
+from forge.controller.provisioner import init_provisioner, shutdown
+from forge.observability.metric_actors import get_or_create_metric_logger
+from forge.types import LauncherConfig, ProvisionerConfig
+from forge.util.config import parse
+from omegaconf import DictConfig
+from vllm.transformers_utils.tokenizer import get_tokenizer
+
+
+def generate_random_batch(
+    local_batch_size: int,
+    request_len: int,
+    response_len: int,
+    vocab_size: int = 32000,
+    device: str = "cuda",
+    dp_size: int = 1,
+):
+    """
+    Generate random input and target tensors for a single training step.
+    Creates one batch per data parallel rank.
+    """
+    inputs = []
+    targets = []
+
+    # Create one batch for each data parallel rank
+    for _ in range(dp_size):
+        request = torch.randint(
+            1,
+            vocab_size,
+            (local_batch_size, request_len),
+            dtype=torch.long,
+            device=device,
+        )
+        response = torch.randint(
+            1,
+            vocab_size,
+            (local_batch_size, response_len),
+            dtype=torch.long,
+            device=device,
+        )
+
+        # Create padding mask
+        padding_mask = torch.rand((local_batch_size, response_len), device=device) > 0.1
+
+        ref_logprobs = (
+            -torch.abs(torch.randn((local_batch_size, response_len), device=device))
+            - 1.0
+        )
+        advantages = torch.randn((local_batch_size, 1), device=device)
+        input_tokens = torch.cat([request, response], dim=1)
+        inputs.append({"tokens": input_tokens})
+        targets.append(
+            {
+                "response": response,
+                "ref_logprobs": ref_logprobs,
+                "advantages": advantages,
+                "padding_mask": padding_mask,
+            }
+        )
+
+    return inputs, targets
+
+
+async def main(cfg: DictConfig):
+    local_batch_size = cfg.get("local_batch_size", None)
+    assert local_batch_size is not None, "local_batch_size must be specified"
+
+    request_len = cfg.get("max_req_tokens", 64)
+    response_len = cfg.get("max_res_tokens", 64)
+    model_name = cfg.get("model")
+
+    print(f"Loading tokenizer for model: {model_name}")
+    tokenizer = get_tokenizer(model_name)
+    vocab_size = tokenizer.vocab_size
+    print(f"Detected vocab size: {vocab_size}")
+
+    trainer_dp_degree = cfg.trainer.parallelism.get("data_parallel_shard_degree", 1)
+    dp_size = trainer_dp_degree if trainer_dp_degree != -1 else 1
+
+    # ---- Global setups ---- #
+    provisioner = None
+    if cfg.get("provisioner", None) is not None:
+        provisioner = await init_provisioner(
+            ProvisionerConfig(launcher_config=LauncherConfig(**cfg.provisioner))
+        )
+    else:
+        provisioner = await init_provisioner()
+
+    metric_logging_cfg = cfg.get("metric_logging", {})
+    mlogger = await get_or_create_metric_logger(process_name="Controller")
+    await mlogger.init_backends.call_one(metric_logging_cfg)
+
+    # Initialize torchstore
+    await ts.initialize(strategy=ts.ControllerStorageVolumes())
+
+    print("=" * 80)
+    print(f"Model: {model_name}")
+    print(f"Local batch size: {local_batch_size}")
+    print(
+        f"Sequence length: {request_len + response_len} ({request_len} + {response_len})"
+    )
+    print(f"Data parallel size: {dp_size}")
+    print(f"Is RDMA available? {rdma_enabled()}")
+    print("=" * 80 + "\n")
+
+    # Initialize trainer and generator
+    print("Initializing trainer and generator...")
+    init_start = time.time()
+
+    trainer, policy = await asyncio.gather(
+        RLTrainer.options(**cfg.actors.trainer).as_actor(
+            **cfg.trainer,
+            loss=lambda *args, **kwargs: torch.tensor(
+                1.0, requires_grad=True, device="cuda"
+            ),
+        ),
+        Generator.options(**cfg.actors.policy).as_actor(**cfg.policy),
+    )
+
+    init_time = time.time() - init_start
+    print(f"Finished initialization in ({init_time:.2f}s)")
+
+    # Run one training step to create weight delta
+    print("Running single training step...")
+    step_start = time.time()
+
+    inputs, targets = generate_random_batch(
+        local_batch_size=local_batch_size,
+        request_len=request_len,
+        response_len=response_len,
+        vocab_size=vocab_size,
+        dp_size=dp_size,
+    )
+
+    await trainer.train_step.call(inputs, targets)
+    step_time = time.time() - step_start
+    print(f"Finished train step in ({step_time:.2f}s)\n")
+
+    # Test push_weights
+    print("Pushing weights from trainer to store...")
+    push_start = time.time()
+
+    await trainer.push_weights.call(policy_version=1)
+
+    push_time = time.time() - push_start
+    print(f"Finished weights push in ({push_time:.2f}s)\n")
+
+    # Test update_weights
+    print("Updating generator weights from store...")
+    update_start = time.time()
+
+    await policy.update_weights.call(version=1)
+
+    update_time = time.time() - update_start
+    print(f"Updated generator weights ({update_time:.2f}s)\n")
+
+    # TODO - ideally we have the capability to check forward passes between
+    # the trainer/generator to verify correctness. This would require adding
+    # forward capabilities to both trainer/generator actors.
+
+    # Summary
+    print("=" * 80)
+    print("Results")
+    print("=" * 80)
+    print(f"Push time:         {push_time:.2f}s")
+    print(f"Update time:       {update_time:.2f}s")
+    print(f"Total sync time:   {push_time + update_time:.2f}s")
+    print("=" * 80 + "\n")
+
+    # Cleanup
+    print("Shutting down...")
+    await shutdown()
+    print("Shutdown complete.")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+
+    @parse
+    def _main(cfg):
+        asyncio.run(main(cfg))
+
+    _main()
diff --git a/tests/sandbox/weight_sync/qwen3_1_7b.yaml b/tests/sandbox/weight_sync/qwen3_1_7b.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ea28a1471
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/sandbox/weight_sync/qwen3_1_7b.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+# Weight Sync Sandbox Configuration
+# >>> python -m tests.sandbox.weight_sync.main --config tests/sandbox/weight_sync/qwen3_1_7b.yaml
+
+model: "Qwen/Qwen3-1.7B"
+local_batch_size: 4
+max_req_tokens: 64
+max_res_tokens: 64
+
+metric_logging:
+  console:
+    logging_mode: global_reduce
+
+policy:
+  prefetch_weights_to_shm: false  # Disable to avoid shared memory warnings in test
+  engine_args:
+    model: ${model}
+    tensor_parallel_size: 1
+    pipeline_parallel_size: 1
+    enforce_eager: true
+  sampling_params:
+    n: 1
+    max_tokens: 32  # Just for verification forward pass
+    temperature: 1.0
+    top_p: 1.0
+
+trainer:
+  model:
+    name: qwen3
+    flavor: 1.7B
+    hf_assets_path: hf://${model}
+  optimizer:
+    name: AdamW
+    lr: 1e-5
+    eps: 1e-8
+  lr_scheduler:
+    warmup_steps: 1
+  training:
+    local_batch_size: ${local_batch_size}
+    seq_len: 128  # max_req_tokens + max_res_tokens
+    max_norm: 1.0
+    steps: 1  # We only run 1 step
+    dtype: bfloat16
+    gc_freq: 1
+  compile:
+    enable: false
+  parallelism:
+    data_parallel_replicate_degree: 1
+    data_parallel_shard_degree: 1  # Single GPU, no FSDP
+    tensor_parallel_degree: 1
+    pipeline_parallel_degree: 1
+    context_parallel_degree: 1
+    expert_parallel_degree: 1
+    disable_loss_parallel: true
+  checkpoint:
+    enable: true
+    folder: ./checkpoint
+    initial_load_path: hf://${model}
+    initial_load_in_hf: true
+    last_save_in_hf: true
+    async_mode: "disabled"
+  activation_checkpoint:
+    mode: selective
+    selective_ac_option: op
+
+# Resource allocation - both as actors
+actors:
+  policy:
+    procs: 1  # Single process for generator
+    with_gpus: true
+    mesh_name: policy
+  trainer:
+    procs: 1  # Single process for trainer
+    with_gpus: true
+    mesh_name: trainer