diff --git a/core/_10_gen_audio.py b/core/_10_gen_audio.py
index 94e52454..10ed4556 100644
--- a/core/_10_gen_audio.py
+++ b/core/_10_gen_audio.py
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@
 import subprocess
 from typing import Tuple
 
+# noqa: F401 - eval() of xlsx columns under numpy>=2.0 needs np in scope
+#   (pandas serializes floats as np.float64(...) repr instead of bare numbers)
+import numpy as np  # noqa: F401
+
 import pandas as pd
 from pydub import AudioSegment
 from rich.console import Console
diff --git a/core/_11_merge_audio.py b/core/_11_merge_audio.py
index 41c8ac16..426829f8 100644
--- a/core/_11_merge_audio.py
+++ b/core/_11_merge_audio.py
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
 import os
+
+# noqa: F401 - eval() of xlsx columns under numpy>=2.0 needs np in scope
+#   (pandas serializes floats as np.float64(...) repr instead of bare numbers)
+import numpy as np  # noqa: F401
 import pandas as pd
 import subprocess
 from pydub import AudioSegment