diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 740061d..ca83013 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,13 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+## [2.4.2] - 2026-07-19
+
+### Fixed
+
+- Container crash-loop on fresh builds: cap `opentelemetry-api` below 1.44,
+  which removed the private `_events` module that pydantic-ai 1.27 imports
+
 ## [2.4.1] - 2026-07-19
 
 ### Changed
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index b6d0f58..5e8ca06 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
 name = "tatlock"
-version = "2.4.1"
+version = "2.4.2"
 description = "OpenAI-compatible API with Ollama backend"
 requires-python = ">=3.12"
 dependencies = [
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ dependencies = [
     "pydantic>=2.11,<2.13",
     "pydantic-settings>=2.12,<2.13",
     "pydantic-ai-slim[openai,anthropic]>=1.27,<1.28",
+    # pydantic-ai 1.27 imports the private opentelemetry._events module,
+    # removed in opentelemetry-api 1.44 — cap until pydantic-ai is bumped
+    "opentelemetry-api>=1.30,<1.44",
     "anthropic>=0.77,<1.0",
     "httpx>=0.28,<0.29",
     "sse-starlette>=3.0,<3.1",