diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index ee396186..d07dbb5d 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ install_requires =
     grpcio >= 1.46; platform_system!='Emscripten'
     libusb1 >= 2.0.1; platform_system!='Emscripten'
     prompt_toolkit >= 3.0.16; platform_system!='Emscripten'
+    protobuf >= 3.12.4
     pyee >= 8.2.2
     pyserial-asyncio >= 0.5; platform_system!='Emscripten'
     pyserial >= 3.5; platform_system!='Emscripten'