diff --git a/.golangci.yml b/.golangci.yml
index 9da2cbb2f..a8e0b142e 100644
--- a/.golangci.yml
+++ b/.golangci.yml
@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 run:
   timeout: 10m
+  # Pin to go.mod's `go` directive. `toolchain` only swaps the Go binary
+  # (bumped for security patches); source semantics are still gated by
+  # `go`, so analyzing as 1.24 stays accurate. Without this, golangci-lint
+  # reads `toolchain` and errors when its own binary was built with older Go.
+  go: "1.24"
 
 output:
   # colored-line-number|line-number|json|tab|checkstyle|code-climate, default is "colored-line-number"
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index b7b01f8a4..71cb15f2a 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ module github.com/crossplane/crossplane-runtime
 
 go 1.24.0
 
-toolchain go1.24.13
+toolchain go1.25.10
 
 require (
 	dario.cat/mergo v1.0.1