diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 1ad9edb..39dffce 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ readme = "README.md"
 license = {text = "MIT"}
 requires-python = ">=3.10"
 dependencies = [
-    "torch>=2.0",
+    "torch>=2.14.1",
 ]
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 7d11bc2..450b762 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 torch>=2.14.1                       # 2.14.0+cu126 tested; CPU-only works for inference
 
 # ── Embedding backbone (frozen, inference-only) ──
-transformers>=5.19.0                # 5.18.0 tested; loads bge-m3 / e5-small / any HF model
+transformers>=5.20.2                # 5.18.0 tested; loads bge-m3 / e5-small / any HF model
 numpy>=2.2.6                        # 2.5.3 tested
 
 # ── ONNX export + quantization + CPU inference ──