diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index d49efd0..ae8b57c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ jobs:
       matrix:
         include:
           - os: ubuntu-22.04
-            python-version: "3.9"
+            python-version: "3.10"
           - os: ubuntu-22.04
             python-version: "3.12"
           - os: macos-14
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 0583308..c2f6285 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "platformdirs",
     "metatensor-learn >=0.3.2,<0.4",
     "metatensor-operations >=0.3.3,<0.4",
-    "metatensor-torch >=0.7.6,<0.8",
+    "metatensor-torch >=0.7.6,<0.9",
     "metatomic-torch >=0.1.2,<0.2",
     "vesin",
 ]
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index a30dd49..ff85925 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ deps =
     flake8==7.3.0
     flake8-bugbear==24.12.12
     black==25.1.0
-    blackdoc
+    blackdoc==0.4.2
     isort
 
 commands =
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ commands =
 [testenv:build]
 description = builds the package and checks integrity
 usedevelop = true
+skip_install = true
 deps =
     build
     check-manifest
@@ -49,12 +50,21 @@ commands =
     twine check dist/*.tar.gz dist/*.whl
     check-manifest {toxinidir}
 
+[testenv:pkg-smoke]
+description = Install the built wheel (no deps) and sanity-check imports
+deps = 
+    pip
+skip_install = true
+commands =
+    python -m pip install --no-deps dist/*.whl
+    python -c "import shiftml, importlib.metadata as m; print('ok', m.version('shiftml'))"
+
 [testenv:format]
 description = Abuse tox to do actual formatting on all files.
 package = skip
 deps =
     black==25.1.0
-    blackdoc
+    blackdoc==0.4.2
     isort
 commands =
     black src tests
@@ -62,6 +72,7 @@ commands =
     isort src tests
 
 
+
 [testenv:docs]
 description = Invoke sphinx-build to build the HTML docs
 deps =