diff --git a/.github/workflows/CI.yml b/.github/workflows/CI.yml
index 46cc44098..6509f517b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/CI.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/CI.yml
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ on:
   pull_request:
     branches:
       - 'master'
+      - 'release-v1'
     paths:
       - '**'
 
@@ -42,7 +43,7 @@ jobs:
             os: ubuntu-latest
             test-id: include
           - julia-version: '1'
-            python-version: '3.8'
+            python-version: '3.9'
             os: ubuntu-latest
             test-id: include
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/CI_Windows.yml b/.github/workflows/CI_Windows.yml
index 1f5c916cc..2f4ea3ea5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/CI_Windows.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/CI_Windows.yml
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ on:
   pull_request:
     branches:
       - 'master'
+      - 'release-v1'
     paths:
       - '**'
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/CI_apptainer.yml b/.github/workflows/CI_apptainer.yml
index 76583b656..a6c2fa8eb 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/CI_apptainer.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/CI_apptainer.yml
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ on:
   pull_request:
     branches:
       - 'master'
+      - 'release-v1'
     paths:
       - '**'
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/CI_conda_forge.yml b/.github/workflows/CI_conda_forge.yml
index b2e8a2613..6d17275aa 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/CI_conda_forge.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/CI_conda_forge.yml
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
-        python-version: ['3.10', '3']
+        # NOTE: pin to avoid free-threaded Python variants (e.g. 3.14t)
+        python-version: ['3.10', '3.13']
         os: ['ubuntu-latest', 'windows-latest', 'macos-latest']
 
     steps:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/CI_docker.yml b/.github/workflows/CI_docker.yml
index 16be73cb8..6fa81820c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/CI_docker.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/CI_docker.yml
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ on:
   pull_request:
     branches:
       - 'master'
+      - 'release-v1'
     paths:
       - '**'
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/CI_mac.yml b/.github/workflows/CI_mac.yml
index 20514dd06..c62275293 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/CI_mac.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/CI_mac.yml
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ on:
   pull_request:
     branches:
       - 'master'
+      - 'release-v1'
     paths:
       - '**'
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml b/.github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml
index 9b96a00f6..ec97e2e4e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@ name: "CodeQL"
 
 on:
   push:
-    branches: [ "master" ]
+    branches: [ "master", "release-v1" ]
   pull_request:
     # The branches below must be a subset of the branches above
-    branches: [ "master" ]
+    branches: [ "master", "release-v1" ]
   schedule:
     - cron: '28 17 * * 1'
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/update_backend.yml b/.github/workflows/update_backend.yml
index e837fb493..d5b2104ed 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/update_backend.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/update_backend.yml
@@ -43,8 +43,9 @@ jobs:
           fi
 
       - name: "Create PR if necessary"
-        uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v7
+        uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v8
         with:
+          branch: backend-update/v${{ steps.get-latest.outputs.version }}
           base: release-v1
           title: "Automated update to backend: v${{ steps.get-latest.outputs.version }}"
           body: |
diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml
index 47c625949..96acf064d 100644
--- a/environment.yml
+++ b/environment.yml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ name: test
 channels:
   - conda-forge
 dependencies:
-  - python>=3.8
+  - python>=3.9
   - sympy>=1.0.0,<2.0.0
   - pandas>=0.21.0,<4.0.0
   - numpy>=1.13.0,<3.0.0
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 4da99affe..809447c67 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ authors = [
 description = "Simple and efficient symbolic regression"
 readme = {file = "README.md", content-type = "text/markdown"}
 license = {file = "LICENSE"}
-requires-python = ">=3.8"
+requires-python = ">=3.9"
 classifiers = [
     "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
     "Operating System :: OS Independent",
diff --git a/pysr/export.py b/pysr/export.py
index 0389c792f..1e4fcb5e1 100644
--- a/pysr/export.py
+++ b/pysr/export.py
@@ -83,8 +83,8 @@ def add_export_formats(
     )
 
     if output_jax_format:
-        exports["jax_format"] = jax_format
+        exports["jax_format"] = pd.Series(jax_format, index=output.index)
     if output_torch_format:
-        exports["torch_format"] = torch_format
+        exports["torch_format"] = pd.Series(torch_format, index=output.index)
 
     return exports