diff --git a/ruff.toml b/ruff.toml
index b8603a4..79bdb97 100644
--- a/ruff.toml
+++ b/ruff.toml
@@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
-target-version = "py314"
+target-version = "py313"
+# Note: runtime is Python 3.14, but the python-ci runner image ships
+# ruff 0.9.7 which only knows target-version up to py313. Bumping the
+# runner image's RUFF_VERSION to 0.13+ would let us flip this back to
+# py314; until then py313 is the highest ruff accepts here. Code still
+# runs on 3.14; we just don't get UP suggestions for 3.14-only optimizations.
 line-length = 100
 
 [lint]