diff --git a/src/bin/consciousness.rs b/src/bin/consciousness.rs
index 61d28e1..21e5087 100644
--- a/src/bin/consciousness.rs
+++ b/src/bin/consciousness.rs
@@ -14,5 +14,13 @@ fn main() {
         unsafe { std::env::set_var("RUST_BACKTRACE", "1"); }
     }
     std::panic::set_backtrace_style(std::panic::BacktraceStyle::Short);
+
+    // rustls 0.23 requires an explicit process-wide CryptoProvider
+    // when both `ring` and `aws-lc-rs` are in the dep graph (otherwise
+    // it panics on first ClientConfig::builder()). Pick `ring`.
+    rustls::crypto::ring::default_provider()
+        .install_default()
+        .expect("install rustls crypto provider");
+
     consciousness::user::main()
 }