diff --git a/renovate.json b/renovate.json
index e4f29762..c95f708e 100644
--- a/renovate.json
+++ b/renovate.json
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 {
   "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
   "packageRules": [
+    {
+      "description": "bucket4j-core is manually pinned outside the Spring BOM — track patch auto-merge, minor/major as PRs.",
+      "matchPackageNames": ["com.bucket4j:bucket4j-core"],
+      "groupName": "bucket4j",
+      "automerge": true,
+      "matchUpdateTypes": ["patch"]
+    },
     {
       "matchPackagePatterns": ["^@tiptap/"],
       "groupName": "tiptap",