fix: loosen dependency constraints to fix OPIK integration conflict

This commit addresses issue #4201 where crewAI's overly restrictive
dependency constraints (using ~= operator) caused conflicts when
installing alongside packages like opik.

Changes:
- Changed dependency constraints from ~= (compatible release) to >=
  (minimum version) for core dependencies in crewai and crewai-tools
- Key dependencies loosened: openai, pydantic, pydantic-settings,
  opentelemetry-*, and others
- Added tests to verify dependency constraints remain flexible

The ~= operator was too restrictive as it only allows patch version
updates (e.g., openai~=1.83.0 means >=1.83.0,<1.84.0). This caused
dependency resolution failures when other packages needed different
versions of shared dependencies.

Fixes #4201

Co-Authored-By: João <joao@crewai.com>

lib/crewai-tools/pyproject.toml

@@ -8,17 +8,16 @@ authors = [
 ]
 requires-python = ">=3.10, <3.14"
 dependencies = [
-    "lancedb~=0.5.4",
+    "lancedb>=0.5.4",
-    "pytube~=15.0.0",
+    "pytube>=15.0.0",
-    "requests~=2.32.5",
+    "requests>=2.32.5",
-    "docker~=7.1.0",
+    "docker>=7.1.0",
-    "crewai==1.8.0",
+    "crewai>=1.8.0",
-    "lancedb~=0.5.4",
+    "tiktoken>=0.8.0",
-    "tiktoken~=0.8.0",
+    "beautifulsoup4>=4.12.3",
-    "beautifulsoup4~=4.13.4",
+    "python-docx>=1.1.0",
-    "python-docx~=1.2.0",
+    "youtube-transcript-api>=0.6.3",
-    "youtube-transcript-api~=1.2.2",
+    "pymupdf>=1.25.0",
-    "pymupdf~=1.26.6",
 ]
 
 

lib/crewai/pyproject.toml

@@ -9,36 +9,36 @@ authors = [
 requires-python = ">=3.10, <3.14"
 dependencies = [
     # Core Dependencies
-    "pydantic~=2.11.9",
+    "pydantic>=2.11.9,<3.0.0",
-    "openai~=1.83.0",
+    "openai>=1.13.3",
     "instructor>=1.3.3",
     # Text Processing
-    "pdfplumber~=0.11.4",
+    "pdfplumber>=0.11.4",
-    "regex~=2024.9.11",
+    "regex>=2024.9.11",
     # Telemetry and Monitoring
-    "opentelemetry-api~=1.34.0",
+    "opentelemetry-api>=1.30.0",
-    "opentelemetry-sdk~=1.34.0",
+    "opentelemetry-sdk>=1.30.0",
-    "opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http~=1.34.0",
+    "opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http>=1.30.0",
     # Data Handling
-    "chromadb~=1.1.0",
+    "chromadb>=1.0.0",
-    "tokenizers~=0.20.3",
+    "tokenizers>=0.20.3",
-    "openpyxl~=3.1.5",
+    "openpyxl>=3.1.5",
     # Authentication and Security
-    "python-dotenv~=1.1.1",
+    "python-dotenv>=1.0.0",
-    "pyjwt~=2.9.0",
+    "pyjwt>=2.9.0",
     # Configuration and Utils
-    "click~=8.1.7",
+    "click>=8.1.7",
-    "appdirs~=1.4.4",
+    "appdirs>=1.4.4",
-    "jsonref~=1.1.0",
+    "jsonref>=1.1.0",
-    "json-repair~=0.25.2",
+    "json-repair>=0.25.2",
-    "tomli-w~=1.1.0",
+    "tomli-w>=1.1.0",
-    "tomli~=2.0.2",
+    "tomli>=2.0.2",
-    "json5~=0.10.0",
+    "json5>=0.10.0",
-    "portalocker~=2.7.0",
+    "portalocker>=2.7.0",
-    "pydantic-settings~=2.10.1",
+    "pydantic-settings>=2.10.1,<3.0.0",
-    "mcp~=1.16.0",
+    "mcp>=1.16.0",
-    "uv~=0.9.13",
+    "uv>=0.4.25",
-    "aiosqlite~=0.21.0",
+    "aiosqlite>=0.21.0",
 ]
 
 [project.urls]
@@ -49,54 +49,54 @@ Repository = "https://github.com/crewAIInc/crewAI"
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
 tools = [
-    "crewai-tools==1.8.0",
+    "crewai-tools>=1.8.0",
 ]
 embeddings = [
-    "tiktoken~=0.8.0"
+    "tiktoken>=0.8.0"
 ]
 pandas = [
-    "pandas~=2.2.3",
+    "pandas>=2.2.3",
 ]
 openpyxl = [
-    "openpyxl~=3.1.5",
+    "openpyxl>=3.1.5",
 ]
-mem0 = ["mem0ai~=0.1.94"]
+mem0 = ["mem0ai>=0.1.94"]
 docling = [
-    "docling~=2.63.0",
+    "docling>=2.12.0",
 ]
 qdrant = [
-    "qdrant-client[fastembed]~=1.14.3",
+    "qdrant-client[fastembed]>=1.14.3",
 ]
 aws = [
-    "boto3~=1.40.38",
+    "boto3>=1.40.38",
-    "aiobotocore~=2.25.2",
+    "aiobotocore>=2.25.2",
 ]
 watson = [
-    "ibm-watsonx-ai~=1.3.39",
+    "ibm-watsonx-ai>=1.3.39",
 ]
 voyageai = [
-    "voyageai~=0.3.5",
+    "voyageai>=0.3.5",
 ]
 litellm = [
-    "litellm~=1.74.9",
+    "litellm>=1.74.9",
 ]
 bedrock = [
-    "boto3~=1.40.45",
+    "boto3>=1.40.45",
 ]
 google-genai = [
-    "google-genai~=1.49.0",
+    "google-genai>=1.2.0",
 ]
 azure-ai-inference = [
-    "azure-ai-inference~=1.0.0b9",
+    "azure-ai-inference>=1.0.0b9",
 ]
 anthropic = [
-    "anthropic~=0.71.0",
+    "anthropic>=0.69.0",
 ]
 a2a = [
-     "a2a-sdk~=0.3.10",
+     "a2a-sdk>=0.3.10",
-     "httpx-auth~=0.23.1",
+     "httpx-auth>=0.23.1",
-     "httpx-sse~=0.4.0",
+     "httpx-sse>=0.4.0",
-     "aiocache[redis,memcached]~=0.12.3",
+     "aiocache[redis,memcached]>=0.12.3",
 ]
 
 

lib/crewai/tests/test_dependency_compatibility.py

@@ -0,0 +1,171 @@
+"""Test that crewai dependencies are compatible with common integrations.
+
+This test module verifies that crewai's dependency constraints are flexible enough
+to allow installation alongside common third-party packages like opik for monitoring.
+
+Related issue: https://github.com/crewAIInc/crewAI/issues/4201
+"""
+
+import re
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import tomli
+
+
+def get_pyproject_path() -> Path:
+    """Get the path to the crewai pyproject.toml file."""
+    return Path(__file__).parent.parent / "pyproject.toml"
+
+
+def parse_pyproject() -> dict:
+    """Parse the pyproject.toml file."""
+    pyproject_path = get_pyproject_path()
+    with open(pyproject_path, "rb") as f:
+        return tomli.load(f)
+
+
+def test_openai_dependency_is_flexible():
+    """Test that openai dependency uses >= instead of ~= to allow version flexibility.
+
+    The ~= operator (compatible release) is too restrictive and can cause dependency
+    conflicts with packages like opik that also depend on openai.
+
+    For example, openai~=1.83.0 means >=1.83.0,<1.84.0 which is very restrictive.
+    Using openai>=1.13.3 allows any version >= 1.13.3 which is more flexible.
+    """
+    pyproject = parse_pyproject()
+    dependencies = pyproject["project"]["dependencies"]
+
+    openai_dep = None
+    for dep in dependencies:
+        if dep.startswith("openai"):
+            openai_dep = dep
+            break
+
+    assert openai_dep is not None, "openai dependency not found in pyproject.toml"
+
+    # Check that it uses >= instead of ~=
+    assert "~=" not in openai_dep, (
+        f"openai dependency should use >= instead of ~= for flexibility. "
+        f"Found: {openai_dep}"
+    )
+    assert ">=" in openai_dep, (
+        f"openai dependency should use >= for minimum version. Found: {openai_dep}"
+    )
+
+
+def test_pydantic_dependency_allows_minor_updates():
+    """Test that pydantic dependency allows minor version updates within v2.
+
+    Using pydantic>=2.x.x,<3.0.0 allows minor updates while staying within v2.
+    """
+    pyproject = parse_pyproject()
+    dependencies = pyproject["project"]["dependencies"]
+
+    pydantic_dep = None
+    for dep in dependencies:
+        if dep.startswith("pydantic") and not dep.startswith("pydantic-settings"):
+            pydantic_dep = dep
+            break
+
+    assert pydantic_dep is not None, "pydantic dependency not found in pyproject.toml"
+
+    # Check that it uses >= and <3.0.0 instead of ~=
+    assert "~=" not in pydantic_dep, (
+        f"pydantic dependency should use >= instead of ~= for flexibility. "
+        f"Found: {pydantic_dep}"
+    )
+    assert ">=" in pydantic_dep, (
+        f"pydantic dependency should use >= for minimum version. Found: {pydantic_dep}"
+    )
+    assert "<3.0.0" in pydantic_dep, (
+        f"pydantic dependency should have <3.0.0 upper bound. Found: {pydantic_dep}"
+    )
+
+
+def test_pydantic_settings_dependency_allows_minor_updates():
+    """Test that pydantic-settings dependency allows minor version updates within v2."""
+    pyproject = parse_pyproject()
+    dependencies = pyproject["project"]["dependencies"]
+
+    pydantic_settings_dep = None
+    for dep in dependencies:
+        if dep.startswith("pydantic-settings"):
+            pydantic_settings_dep = dep
+            break
+
+    assert (
+        pydantic_settings_dep is not None
+    ), "pydantic-settings dependency not found in pyproject.toml"
+
+    # Check that it uses >= and <3.0.0 instead of ~=
+    assert "~=" not in pydantic_settings_dep, (
+        f"pydantic-settings dependency should use >= instead of ~= for flexibility. "
+        f"Found: {pydantic_settings_dep}"
+    )
+    assert ">=" in pydantic_settings_dep, (
+        f"pydantic-settings dependency should use >= for minimum version. "
+        f"Found: {pydantic_settings_dep}"
+    )
+
+
+def test_core_dependencies_use_flexible_constraints():
+    """Test that core dependencies use >= instead of ~= for flexibility.
+
+    The ~= operator is too restrictive for most dependencies and can cause
+    conflicts with third-party packages.
+    """
+    pyproject = parse_pyproject()
+    dependencies = pyproject["project"]["dependencies"]
+
+    # These are core dependencies that should use flexible constraints
+    core_deps = [
+        "openai",
+        "pydantic",
+        "opentelemetry-api",
+        "opentelemetry-sdk",
+        "click",
+    ]
+
+    for core_dep in core_deps:
+        matching_dep = None
+        for dep in dependencies:
+            if dep.startswith(core_dep):
+                matching_dep = dep
+                break
+
+        if matching_dep:
+            assert "~=" not in matching_dep, (
+                f"{core_dep} dependency should use >= instead of ~= for flexibility. "
+                f"Found: {matching_dep}"
+            )
+
+
+def test_no_overly_restrictive_pinning():
+    """Test that dependencies don't use overly restrictive pinning.
+
+    Dependencies should not use == (exact version) or ~= (compatible release)
+    unless there's a specific reason documented.
+    """
+    pyproject = parse_pyproject()
+    dependencies = pyproject["project"]["dependencies"]
+
+    for dep in dependencies:
+        # Skip comments
+        if dep.strip().startswith("#"):
+            continue
+
+        # Check for exact version pinning (==)
+        # Allow == only if there's a known reason
+        if "==" in dep:
+            # Currently no dependencies should use ==
+            assert False, (
+                f"Dependency uses exact version pinning (==) which is too restrictive: {dep}"
+            )
+
+        # Check for compatible release (~=)
+        if "~=" in dep:
+            assert False, (
+                f"Dependency uses compatible release (~=) which can be too restrictive: {dep}. "
+                f"Consider using >= instead."
+            )