diff --git a/.pipelines/modelkit-official-build.yml b/.pipelines/modelkit-official-build.yml
index 2b7ca7d89..279503819 100644
--- a/.pipelines/modelkit-official-build.yml
+++ b/.pipelines/modelkit-official-build.yml
@@ -127,7 +127,14 @@ extends:
                   artifactFeeds: 'windows.ai.toolkit/Modelkit'
                 displayName: 'Authenticate pip with Azure Artifacts'
 
-              - script: python -m pip install --upgrade build twine packaging
+              # PINNED ON PURPOSE — do NOT relax to unpinned/--upgrade.
+              # An unpinned toolchain lets a third-party release break the
+              # release build on publish day. build 1.5.1 did exactly that:
+              # its isolated-env pip invocation fails inside this container
+              # with "FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2]" while resolving the
+              # user cache dir from the registry. These are the versions that
+              # produced the v0.2.0 release. Bump deliberately, never silently.
+              - script: python -m pip install build==1.5.0 twine==6.2.0 packaging==26.2
                 displayName: 'Install build tools'
 
               # Build sdist BEFORE iKey injection so the source archive
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 65a07ab62..c1becfbb1 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ requires = [ "setuptools>=61", "wheel" ]
 
 [project]
 name = "winml-cli"
-version = "0.2.0"
+version = "0.3.0"
 description = "Accelerate Model Deployment on WinML"
 readme = "README.md"
 keywords = [ "onnx", "winml" ]
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
index 482d47149..26d508307 100644
--- a/uv.lock
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -3218,7 +3218,7 @@ wheels = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "winml-cli"
-version = "0.2.0"
+version = "0.3.0"
 source = { editable = "." }
 dependencies = [
     { name = "click" },