diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yaml b/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
index 6bc200c3dc..b1de8bc77e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ jobs:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
         os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macos-latest]
-        environment: [mindeps, "3.10", "3.11", "3.12", "3.13", "3.14"]
+        environment: [mindeps, "3.10", "3.11", "3.12", "3.13", "3.14", "3.14t"]
         label: [default]
         extra_packages: [null]
         # Cherry-pick test modules to split the overall runtime roughly in half
@@ -44,6 +44,8 @@ jobs:
             environment: "3.12"
           - os: macos-latest
             environment: "3.13"
+          - os: macos-latest
+            environment: "3.14t"
 
           - os: windows-latest
             environment: mindeps
@@ -168,6 +170,19 @@ jobs:
             || steps.cache.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
           )
 
+      - name: Disable msgpack C extension on free-threading
+        # FIXME https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-python/issues/613
+        # The msgpack C module does not contain any race conditions in free-threading,
+        # but does not release the GIL. So we need to either install the (slower)
+        # pure-python variant or we need to run the test suite with PYTHON_GIL=0.
+        # The former approach has the benefit of proving that msgpack is the only offender.
+        if: ${{ matrix.environment == '3.14t' }}
+        shell: bash -l {0}        
+        run: |
+          conda uninstall -y -v --force msgpack-python
+          MSGPACK_PUREPYTHON=1 python -m pip install msgpack --no-binary msgpack --no-cache --force-reinstall -v
+          python -Werror -c 'import msgpack'
+
       - name: Install
         shell: bash -l {0}
         run: |
diff --git a/continuous_integration/environment-3.10.yaml b/continuous_integration/environment-3.10.yaml
index 13c970c87e..f98b51d72a 100644
--- a/continuous_integration/environment-3.10.yaml
+++ b/continuous_integration/environment-3.10.yaml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ dependencies:
   - cloudpickle
   - coverage
   - cython  # Only tested here; also a dependency of crick
-  - dask  # overridden by git tip below
+  - dask  # overridden by git tip below; pulls in optional dependencies
   - fsspec
   - gilknocker
   - h5py
diff --git a/continuous_integration/environment-3.11.yaml b/continuous_integration/environment-3.11.yaml
index 976ea2fb5c..c62e3ff4f1 100644
--- a/continuous_integration/environment-3.11.yaml
+++ b/continuous_integration/environment-3.11.yaml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ dependencies:
   - click
   - cloudpickle
   - coverage
-  - dask  # overridden by git tip below
+  - dask  # overridden by git tip below; pulls in optional dependencies
   - fsspec  # overridden by git tip below
   - gilknocker
   - h5py
diff --git a/continuous_integration/environment-3.12.yaml b/continuous_integration/environment-3.12.yaml
index 7627ef70c7..b8ccb0fc27 100644
--- a/continuous_integration/environment-3.12.yaml
+++ b/continuous_integration/environment-3.12.yaml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ dependencies:
   - click
   - cloudpickle
   - coverage
-  - dask  # overridden by git tip below
+  - dask  # overridden by git tip below; pulls in optional dependencies
   - fsspec  # overridden by git tip below
   - gilknocker
   - h5py
diff --git a/continuous_integration/environment-3.13.yaml b/continuous_integration/environment-3.13.yaml
index 8112cc2c0e..1b56813bb3 100644
--- a/continuous_integration/environment-3.13.yaml
+++ b/continuous_integration/environment-3.13.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-name: dask-distributed-313
+name: dask-distributed
 channels:
   - conda-forge
 dependencies:
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ dependencies:
   - click
   - cloudpickle
   - coverage
-  - dask  # overridden by git tip below
+  - dask  # overridden by git tip below; pulls in optional dependencies
   - fsspec  # overridden by git tip below
   - gilknocker
   - h5py
diff --git a/continuous_integration/environment-3.14.yaml b/continuous_integration/environment-3.14.yaml
index 3dea58af26..aa770da895 100644
--- a/continuous_integration/environment-3.14.yaml
+++ b/continuous_integration/environment-3.14.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-name: dask-distributed-313
+name: dask-distributed
 channels:
   - conda-forge
 dependencies:
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ dependencies:
   - click
   - cloudpickle
   - coverage
-  - dask  # overridden by git tip below
+  - dask  # overridden by git tip below; pulls in optional dependencies
   - fsspec  # overridden by git tip below
   - gilknocker
   - h5py
diff --git a/continuous_integration/environment-3.14t.yaml b/continuous_integration/environment-3.14t.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..43f9ddf783
--- /dev/null
+++ b/continuous_integration/environment-3.14t.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+name: dask-distributed
+channels:
+  - conda-forge
+dependencies:
+  - python-freethreading=3.14
+  - packaging
+  - pip
+  - asyncssh
+  - bokeh>3
+  - click
+  - cloudpickle
+  - coverage
+  # conda variant of dask depends on cytoolz, which is not available
+  # on conda yet. Manually install dask dependencies from conda below.
+  # - dask  # overridden by git tip below; pulls in optional dependencies
+  - fsspec  # overridden by git tip below
+  # - gilknocker  # Makes no sense in free-threading
+  # - h5py  # Not available for 3.14t
+  # - ipykernel  # Not available for 3.14t
+  - ipywidgets
+  - jinja2
+  - jupyter_events
+  # - jupyter-server-proxy  # Not available for 3.14t
+  # - jupyterlab  # Not available for 3.14t
+  - locket
+  # FIXME https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-python/issues/613
+  # Install placeholder to prevent distributed below from compiling the C extension from
+  # sources. tests.yml will replace this with a pure-python variant.
+  - msgpack-python
+  - netcdf4
+  - paramiko
+  - pre-commit
+  - prometheus_client
+  - psutil
+  - pyarrow
+  - pytest
+  - pytest-cov
+  - pytest-faulthandler
+  - pytest-repeat
+  - pytest-rerunfailures
+  - pytest-timeout
+  - requests
+  - scikit-learn
+  - scipy
+  - sortedcollections
+  - tblib
+  - toolz
+  - tornado
+  - zict  # overridden by git tip below
+  - zstandard
+
+  ##### 3.14t temporary hacks
+  # packages normally pulled in by the `dask` conda package
+  - dask-core
+  # - cytoolz  # conda package for 3.14t not yet available; installed via pip below
+  - lz4
+  - numpy
+  - pandas>=3  # Actually need >=3.0.1 due to severe race conditions in 3.0
+               # (https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/pull/63783)
+               # Until 3.0.1 is released, this is temporarily overridden
+               # by pandas git below.
+  - pyarrow
+  - bokeh
+  - jinja2
+  - pyyaml
+  - sortedcontainers
+  - urllib3
+  ##### end 3.14t hacks
+
+  - pip:
+      - git+https://github.com/dask/dask
+      - git+https://github.com/dask/zict
+      - git+https://github.com/fsspec/filesystem_spec
+      - keras
+
+      ##### 3.14t temporary hacks
+      - cytoolz  # conda package for 3.14t not yet available
+      - git+https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas.git@3.0.x  # Need pandas 3.0.1
+      ##### end 3.14t hacks
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 8ae7581d72..0dd2f4208f 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ classifiers = [
     "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12",
     "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13",
     "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14",
+    "Programming Language :: Python :: Free Threading :: 1 - Unstable",
     "Topic :: Scientific/Engineering",
     "Topic :: System :: Distributed Computing",
 ]