diff --git a/changes/12932.misc.md b/changes/12932.misc.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..815552db1e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/12932.misc.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Enforce the manager layer dependency order (repositories must not import services/api, services must not import api) at build time via Pants visibility rules.
diff --git a/src/ai/backend/manager/BUILD b/src/ai/backend/manager/BUILD
index 05c08e79027..e36891e3630 100644
--- a/src/ai/backend/manager/BUILD
+++ b/src/ai/backend/manager/BUILD
@@ -85,6 +85,31 @@ __dependencies_rules__(
         "//stubs/**",
         "!*",
     ),
+    # repositories: may depend on models/data/dto; must not depend on services or api.
+    (
+        "/repositories/**",
+        "!/services/**",
+        "!/api/**",
+        "/**",
+        "//src/ai/backend/common/**",
+        "//src/ai/backend/cli/**",
+        "//src/ai/backend/logging/**",
+        "//reqs#*",
+        "//stubs/**",
+        "!*",
+    ),
+    # services: must not depend on api.
+    (
+        "/services/**",
+        "!/api/**",
+        "/**",
+        "//src/ai/backend/common/**",
+        "//src/ai/backend/cli/**",
+        "//src/ai/backend/logging/**",
+        "//reqs#*",
+        "//stubs/**",
+        "!*",
+    ),
     # default: every other file in the component.
     (
         "*",