diff --git a/VC_DEMO_CORRECTED.md b/VC_DEMO_CORRECTED.md
index 71f848526..cbe24b0ed 100644
--- a/VC_DEMO_CORRECTED.md
+++ b/VC_DEMO_CORRECTED.md
@@ -90,14 +90,19 @@
 
 ```bash
 cd ~/Fixops
+
+# 1. Python environment (only needs to be done once)
+python3 -m venv .venv
 source .venv/bin/activate
+python -m pip install --upgrade pip
+pip install -r requirements.txt
 
-# Environment
+# 2. Demo environment variables
 export FIXOPS_MODE=demo
 export FIXOPS_API_TOKEN=demo-token
 export FIXOPS_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1
 
-# Start API
+# 3. Start API
 cat > demo_api_server.py << 'PYTHON'
 import os
 os.environ.setdefault("FIXOPS_MODE", "demo")
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 103846cb7..696e19d6d 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -3,8 +3,7 @@ pydantic>=2.6,<3.0
 requests>=2.32,<3.0
 pgmpy==0.1.24
 PyJWT>=2.8,<3.0
-cryptography>=46.0.3,<47.0.0
-cffi>=2.0.0
+cryptography>=45.0.0,<46.0.0
 structlog>=25.4.0,<26.0.0
 PyYAML>=6.0.1,<7.0
 networkx>=3.5,<4.0