diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 1481fd8e..95037b0a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ jobs:
           auto-activate-base: false
           activate-environment: tiktorch-server-env
           environment-file: environment.yml
-          channel-priority: flexible
+          channel-priority: strict
           miniforge-variant: Miniforge3
       - name: Get the latest commit hash and target ref
         run: |
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ jobs:
           auto-activate-base: false
           activate-environment: tiktorch-server-env
           environment-file: environment.yml
-          channel-priority: flexible
+          channel-priority: strict
           miniforge-variant: Miniforge3
       - name: conda diagnostics
         run: |
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           auto-update-conda: true
           auto-activate-base: true
-          channel-priority: flexible
+          channel-priority: strict
           miniforge-variant: Miniforge3
       - name: install common conda dependencies
         run: conda install -n base -c conda-forge conda-build setuptools_scm -y
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           auto-update-conda: true
           auto-activate-base: true
-          channel-priority: flexible
+          channel-priority: strict
           miniforge-variant: Miniforge3
       - name: install common conda dependencies
         run: conda install -n base -c conda-forge conda-build setuptools_scm -y
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 9dc9c0bf..a0c713d8 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 ROOT_DIR:=$(shell dirname $(realpath $(firstword $(MAKEFILE_LIST))))
 TIKTORCH_ENV_NAME ?= tiktorch-server-env
-SUBMODULES = ./vendor/core-bioimage-io-python ./vendor/spec-bioimage-io
+SUBMODULES = ./vendor/spec-bioimage-io ./vendor/core-bioimage-io-python
 
 protos:
 	python -m grpc_tools.protoc -I./proto --python_out=tiktorch/proto/ --grpc_python_out=tiktorch/proto/ ./proto/*.proto
diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml
index aba40a3f..c968d26b 100644
--- a/environment.yml
+++ b/environment.yml
@@ -1,13 +1,14 @@
 name: tiktorch-server-env
 channels:
-  - ilastik-forge
   - pytorch
+  - ilastik-forge
   - conda-forge
+  - nodefaults
 dependencies:
   # - bioimage.spec via submodule
   # - bioimage.core via submodule
   - python 3.9.*
-  - numpy
+  - numpy >=1.21,<2
   - grpcio=1.44 # protobuf 5 requires protoc version > 3.19.0 that requires grpcio >= 1.44
   - marshmallow-union
   - marshmallow=3.12.*
@@ -15,7 +16,6 @@ dependencies:
   - protobuf
   - pyyaml=5.3.*
   - requests
-  - ruamel.yaml
   - scikit-learn
   - scipy
   - typing-extensions
@@ -32,17 +32,32 @@ dependencies:
   - cpuonly
   # - cudatoolkit >=10.2
   # - cudnn
-  # - tochvision
+  - torchvision
 
   # tensorflow (1.14 is the latest 1.x version on cf)
   # so far we don't have any 2.x models in the model zoo
   # tensorflow skipped for now, as it conflicts with grpcio version 1.41
   # - tensorflow >=2.9,<3.0
 
-  # convenient to use bioiamgeio.core tools
-  - imageio
+  # bioimageio.spec / bioimageio.core dependencies:
+  - annotated-types >=0.5.0,<1
+  - email_validator
+  - h5py
+  - imageio >=2.10
+  - loguru
+  - packaging >=17.0
+  - pooch >=1.5,<2
+  - pydantic >=2.7.0,<2.10
+  - pydantic-core
+  - pydantic-settings >=2.5
+  - python-dateutil
+  - rich
+  - ruyaml
+  - tifffile
   - tqdm
   - typer
+  - zipp
+
 
   # dev stuff
   - pytest
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d7210962..7aebd69c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
         "grpcio>=1.31",
         "numpy<2",  # pytorch 2.2.2-py3.9_0 for macos is compiled with numpy 1.*
         "protobuf",
+        "pydantic>=2.7.0,<2.10",
         "pyyaml",
         "xarray",
     ],