diff --git a/backend/Cargo.lock b/backend/Cargo.lock
index fe6e284da1..8b7d593daf 100644
--- a/backend/Cargo.lock
+++ b/backend/Cargo.lock
@@ -1737,7 +1737,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "num-traits",
  "num_cpus",
  "rand 0.8.5",
- "rand_distr 0.4.3",
+ "rand_distr",
  "rayon",
  "safetensors",
  "thiserror 1.0.69",
@@ -5483,16 +5483,16 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "half"
-version = "2.5.0"
+version = "2.4.1"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "7db2ff139bba50379da6aa0766b52fdcb62cb5b263009b09ed58ba604e14bbd1"
+checksum = "6dd08c532ae367adf81c312a4580bc67f1d0fe8bc9c460520283f4c0ff277888"
 dependencies = [
  "bytemuck",
  "cfg-if",
  "crunchy",
  "num-traits",
- "rand 0.9.0",
- "rand_distr 0.5.1",
+ "rand 0.8.5",
+ "rand_distr",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -9158,16 +9158,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "rand 0.8.5",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "rand_distr"
-version = "0.5.1"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "6a8615d50dcf34fa31f7ab52692afec947c4dd0ab803cc87cb3b0b4570ff7463"
-dependencies = [
- "num-traits",
- "rand 0.9.0",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "rand_hc"
 version = "0.2.0"
@@ -11878,7 +11868,7 @@ source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "c56d6ff5591fc332739b3ce7035b57995a3ce29a93ffd6012660e0949c956ea8"
 dependencies = [
  "murmurhash32",
- "rand_distr 0.4.3",
+ "rand_distr",
  "tantivy-common",
 ]
 
@@ -13713,6 +13703,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "datafusion",
  "futures",
  "git-version",
+ "half",
  "hex",
  "hf-hub",
  "hmac",
diff --git a/backend/Cargo.toml b/backend/Cargo.toml
index cd2327c733..ccd68f80d7 100644
--- a/backend/Cargo.toml
+++ b/backend/Cargo.toml
@@ -236,7 +236,8 @@ swc_ecma_visit = "=0.104.8"
 
 
 async-recursion = "^1"
-
+# remove when async-strip is removed, needed to pin rand
+half = "=2.4.1"
 base64 = "^0"
 base32 = "^0"
 hmac = "0.12.1"
diff --git a/backend/windmill-api/Cargo.toml b/backend/windmill-api/Cargo.toml
index 253a125df7..20fe893517 100644
--- a/backend/windmill-api/Cargo.toml
+++ b/backend/windmill-api/Cargo.toml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ enterprise = ["windmill-queue/enterprise", "windmill-audit/enterprise", "windmil
 stripe = ["dep:async-stripe"]
 enterprise_saml = ["dep:samael"]
 benchmark = []
-embedding = ["dep:tinyvector", "dep:hf-hub", "dep:tokenizers", "dep:candle-core", "dep:candle-transformers", "dep:candle-nn"]
+embedding = ["dep:tinyvector", "dep:hf-hub", "dep:tokenizers", "dep:candle-core", "dep:candle-transformers", "dep:candle-nn", "dep:half"]
 parquet = ["dep:datafusion", "dep:object_store", "dep:url", "windmill-common/parquet"]
 prometheus = ["windmill-common/prometheus", "windmill-queue/prometheus", "dep:prometheus"]
 openidconnect = ["dep:openidconnect"]
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ tokio.workspace = true
 anyhow.workspace = true
 argon2.workspace = true
 axum.workspace = true
+half = { workspace = true, optional = true}
 futures.workspace = true
 git-version.workspace = true
 tower.workspace = true