diff --git a/appmap/django.py b/appmap/django.py
index da885f44..281faaa0 100644
--- a/appmap/django.py
+++ b/appmap/django.py
@@ -117,6 +117,11 @@ def wrapped_execute(self, sql, params=None):
 @receiver(connection_created)
 def connected(sender, connection, **_):
     # pylint: disable=unused-argument
+
+    # warm the version cache in the backend to avoid running
+    # additional queries in the middle of processing client queries
+    database_version(connection)
+
     wrappers = connection.execute_wrappers
     if not any(isinstance(x, ExecuteWrapper) for x in wrappers):
         wrappers.append(ExecuteWrapper())
diff --git a/ci/smoketest.sh b/ci/smoketest.sh
index 15135002..54df8080 100755
--- a/ci/smoketest.sh
+++ b/ci/smoketest.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 set -e
-pip install -U pip pytest flask python-decouple
+pip install -U pip pytest "flask<2" python-decouple
 pip install /dist/appmap-*-py3-none-any.whl
 
 cp -R /appmap/test/data/unittest/simple ./.