diff --git a/.scala-steward.conf b/.scala-steward.conf
index a611f672..a257abc8 100644
--- a/.scala-steward.conf
+++ b/.scala-steward.conf
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@ updates.pin = [
   { groupId = "org.scala-lang", artifactId = "scala3-library", version = "3.3." }
   # https://github.com/apache/pekko-grpc/pull/271
   { groupId = "io.grpc", version = "1.62." }
+  # when we update to protobuf 4.x we probably need to update a bunch of libraries
+  # in tandem, and possibly schedule this for a major pekko-grpc release
+  { groupId = "com.google.protobuf", version = "3." }
 ]
 
 updatePullRequests = "always"