diff --git a/chef-cli.gemspec b/chef-cli.gemspec
index 501d6ede..78bd90fb 100644
--- a/chef-cli.gemspec
+++ b/chef-cli.gemspec
@@ -43,11 +43,11 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |gem|
   gem.add_dependency "mixlib-shellout", ">= 2.0", "< 4.0"
   gem.add_dependency "ffi-yajl", ">= 1.0", "< 3.0"
   gem.add_dependency "minitar", "~> 1.0"
-  gem.add_dependency "chef", "~> 18.0"
-  gem.add_dependency "solve", "< 5.0", "> 2.0"
+  gem.add_dependency "chef", ">= 18.0", "< 20.0"
+  gem.add_dependency "solve", "> 2.0", "< 5.0"
   gem.add_dependency "addressable", ">= 2.3.5", "< 2.9"
   gem.add_dependency "cookbook-omnifetch", "~> 0.5"
-  gem.add_dependency "diff-lcs", ">= 1.2.4", "!= 1.4.0", "< 1.6.0" # 1.4 breaks output. Used in lib/chef/util/diff
+  gem.add_dependency "diff-lcs", "> 1.4.0", "< 2.0" # 1.4 breaks output. Newer verions of chef-client require diff-lcs ~> 1.6
   gem.add_dependency "pastel", "~> 0.7" # used for policyfile differ
   gem.add_dependency "license-acceptance", ">= 1.0.11", "< 3"
   gem.add_dependency "chef-licensing", "~> 1.0"