diff --git a/deps/repodata-patches/gen_patch_json.py b/deps/repodata-patches/gen_patch_json.py
index 02ea91a85098b08299d6d5f09af4aca07054ac5b..edc95fcdf1714cee6c510df04aee2a4d5d16f378 100644
--- a/deps/repodata-patches/gen_patch_json.py
+++ b/deps/repodata-patches/gen_patch_json.py
@@ -110,6 +110,11 @@ def _gen_new_index(repodata, packages_key):
             if parse_version(record["version"]) <= parse_version("4.1.0"):
                 record["depends"].append("numpy <1.18")
 
+        # somehow conda cannot resolve pytorch cpu without the cpuonly package
+        # we only ship cpu-only pytorch packages
+        if record_name == "pytorch":
+            record["depends"].append("cpuonly")
+
     return index