diff --git a/ci/test_wheel.sh b/ci/test_wheel.sh
index 4e933b6f..32a6d228 100755
--- a/ci/test_wheel.sh
+++ b/ci/test_wheel.sh
@@ -12,14 +12,20 @@ export RAPIDS_CUDA_MAJOR
 DASK_CUDA_WHEELHOUSE=$(rapids-download-from-github "$(rapids-package-name "wheel_python" "dask-cuda" --pure)")
 
 # generate constraints (possibly pinning to oldest supported versions of dependencies)
-rapids-generate-pip-constraints py_test ./constraints.txt
+rapids-generate-pip-constraints py_test "${PIP_CONSTRAINT}"
 
 rapids-logger "Installing test dependencies"
-# echo to expand wildcard
+
+# notes:
+#
+#   * echo to expand wildcard before adding `[test]` requires for pip
+#   * just providing --constraint="${PIP_CONSTRAINT}" to be explicit, and because
+#     that environment variable is ignored if any other --constraint are passed via the CLI
+#
 rapids-pip-retry install \
   -v \
   --prefer-binary \
-  --constraint ./constraints.txt \
+  --constraint "${PIP_CONSTRAINT}" \
   "$(echo "${DASK_CUDA_WHEELHOUSE}"/dask_cuda*.whl)[cu${RAPIDS_CUDA_MAJOR},test,test-cu${RAPIDS_CUDA_MAJOR}]"
 
 RAPIDS_TESTS_DIR=${RAPIDS_TESTS_DIR:-"${PWD}/test-results"}
diff --git a/dependencies.yaml b/dependencies.yaml
index 17af437e..55640464 100644
--- a/dependencies.yaml
+++ b/dependencies.yaml
@@ -112,6 +112,8 @@ dependencies:
         packages:
           - rapids-build-backend>=0.4.0,<0.5.0
           - setuptools>=77.0.0
+  # 'cuda_version' intentionally does not contain fallback entries... we want
+  # a loud error if an unsupported 'cuda' value is passed
   cuda_version:
     specific:
       - output_types: conda
@@ -144,6 +146,51 @@ dependencies:
               cuda: "13.1"
             packages:
               - cuda-version=13.1
+      - output_types: requirements
+        matrices:
+          # if use_cuda_wheels=false is provided, do not add dependencies on any CUDA wheels
+          # (e.g. for DLFW and pip devcontainers)
+          - matrix:
+              use_cuda_wheels: "false"
+            packages:
+          - matrix:
+              arch: aarch64
+              cuda: "12.2"
+              use_cuda_wheels: "true"
+            packages:
+              # some components (like nvidia-cublas-cu12 and nvidia-cuda-nvcc-cu12) didn't have
+              # aarch64 wheels until CTK 12.3, so allow a slightly looser bound here
+              - cuda-toolkit>=12.2,<12.4
+          - matrix:
+              cuda: "12.2"
+              use_cuda_wheels: "true"
+            packages:
+              - cuda-toolkit==12.2.*
+          - matrix:
+              cuda: "12.5"
+              use_cuda_wheels: "true"
+            packages:
+              - cuda-toolkit==12.5.*
+          - matrix:
+              cuda: "12.8"
+              use_cuda_wheels: "true"
+            packages:
+              - cuda-toolkit==12.8.*
+          - matrix:
+              cuda: "12.9"
+              use_cuda_wheels: "true"
+            packages:
+              - cuda-toolkit==12.9.*
+          - matrix:
+              cuda: "13.0"
+              use_cuda_wheels: "true"
+            packages:
+              - cuda-toolkit==13.0.*
+          - matrix:
+              cuda: "13.1"
+              use_cuda_wheels: "true"
+            packages:
+              - cuda-toolkit==13.1.*
   cuda:
     common:
       - output_types: conda