diff --git a/.scala-steward.conf b/.scala-steward.conf
index e17e14a1b8..6df30b77b1 100644
--- a/.scala-steward.conf
+++ b/.scala-steward.conf
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ updates.pin = [
   { groupId = "com.lightbend.paradox", artifactId = "sbt-paradox", version = "0.9." }
   # Scala 3.3 is a   LTS
   { groupId = "org.scala-lang", artifactId = "scala3-library", version = "3.3." }
+  # protobuf 4 is not yet well supported
+  { groupId = "com.google.protobuf", artifactId = "protobuf-java", version = "3." }
 ]
 
 updates.ignore = [
@@ -17,7 +19,6 @@ updates.ignore = [
   { groupId = "com.fasterxml.jackson.module" }
   { groupId = "com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat" }
   { groupId = "com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype" }
-  { groupId = "com.google.protobuf", artifactId = "protobuf-java" }
   { groupId = "com.typesafe", artifactId = "ssl-config-core" }
   { groupId = "org.agrona", artifactId = "agrona" }
   { groupId = "org.mockito", artifactId = "mockito-core" }