diff --git a/changelog.d/20241010_133336_danfuchs_mermaid_compat.md b/changelog.d/20241010_133336_danfuchs_mermaid_compat.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c1a4bad6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/20241010_133336_danfuchs_mermaid_compat.md
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+### Bug fixes
+
+- Bump `sphinxcontrib-mermaid` to >= 1, which fixes an incompatibility with sphinx==1.8.1, and allows us to unpin the version of mermaid JS.
+
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 27f36086..bd36efa9 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ requires-python = ">=3.11"
 dynamic = ["version"]
 dependencies = [
     "docutils>=0.20",  # solves an extra div bug with the bibliography directive
-    "Sphinx>=7,<8.1.0",  # Consistent docutils constraint, mermaid compatibility
+    "Sphinx>=7",  # Consistent docutils constraint
     "PyYAML",
     "GitPython",
     "requests",
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ guide = [
     "myst-parser",
     "myst-nb",
     "markdown-it-py[linkify]",
-    "sphinxcontrib-mermaid",
+    "sphinxcontrib-mermaid>=1",
     "sphinxext-opengraph",
     "sphinxcontrib-redoc",
     "sphinxcontrib-jquery",
diff --git a/src/documenteer/conf/guide.py b/src/documenteer/conf/guide.py
index a6676b41..2bc0f023 100644
--- a/src/documenteer/conf/guide.py
+++ b/src/documenteer/conf/guide.py
@@ -103,7 +103,6 @@
     "myst_enable_extensions",
     # MERMAID
     "mermaid_output_format",
-    "mermaid_version",
     # OPENGRAPH
     "ogp_site_url",
     "ogp_site_name",
@@ -398,10 +397,6 @@
 # Mermaid CLI installation
 mermaid_output_format = "raw"
 
-# Temporary workaround for not getting mermaid 10 successfully from unpkg
-# https://github.com/mgaitan/sphinxcontrib-mermaid/issues/110
-mermaid_version = "9.4.0"
-
 # ============================================================================
 # #OPENGRAPH OpenGraph diagram support
 # https://github.com/wpilibsuite/sphinxext-opengraph