diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index a9018e798d..a24fcbd342 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ dev = [
     "cellxgene-census"
 ]
 docs = [
+  "docutils>=0.8,!=0.18.*,!=0.19.*",
   "sphinx>=4.1",
   "ipython",
   "sphinx-book-theme>=1.0.1",