diff --git a/package/src/test.rs b/package/src/test.rs
index 5f7e85b..e0a7f7e 100644
--- a/package/src/test.rs
+++ b/package/src/test.rs
@@ -320,7 +320,13 @@ fn test_pants_bootstrap_handling(scie_pants_scie: &Path) {
     // a need to restart.
     let output = execute(
         Command::new(scie_pants_scie)
-            .args(["--no-pantsd", "-V"])
+            .args([
+                "--no-pantsd",
+                // Work around https://github.com/pantsbuild/pants/issues/21863, which results in
+                // irrelevant nailgun-related log lines
+                "--no-process-execution-local-enable-nailgun",
+                "-V",
+            ])
             .stderr(Stdio::piped()),
     )
     .unwrap();
@@ -1189,6 +1195,18 @@ fn test_pants_bootstrap_urls(scie_pants_scie: &Path) {
     // A fresh directory to ensure the downloads happen fresh.
     let scie_base = tmpdir.path().join("scie-base");
 
+    // Set up a pants.toml
+    let pants_release = "2.18.0rc1";
+    let pants_toml_content = format!(
+        r#"
+        [GLOBAL]
+        pants_version = "{pants_release}"
+        "#
+    );
+    let project_dir = tmpdir.path().join("project");
+    let pants_toml = project_dir.join("pants.toml");
+    write_file(&pants_toml, false, pants_toml_content).unwrap();
+
     // The file that we'll plop our URL overrides into...
     let urls_json = tmpdir.path().join("urls.json");
     // ... plus helpers to write to it, we start with the `ptex` key/value of this scie-pants's
@@ -1217,7 +1235,6 @@ fn test_pants_bootstrap_urls(scie_pants_scie: &Path) {
     // Reference data for the Pants we'll try to install (NB. we have to force new-enough version of
     // Pants to install via PEXes, older versions go via PyPI which isn't managed by
     // PANTS_BOOTSTRAP_URLS)
-    let pants_release = "2.18.0rc1";
     let platforms = [
         "darwin_arm64",
         "darwin_x86_64",
@@ -1235,7 +1252,7 @@ fn test_pants_bootstrap_urls(scie_pants_scie: &Path) {
         .arg("-V")
         .env("PANTS_BOOTSTRAP_URLS", &urls_json)
         .env("SCIE_BASE", &scie_base)
-        .env("PANTS_VERSION", pants_release);
+        .current_dir(&project_dir);
 
     // Part 1: Validate that we attempt to download the CPython interpreter from (invalid) override
     // URLs
@@ -1295,14 +1312,28 @@ fn test_pants_bootstrap_stdout_silent(scie_pants_scie: &Path) {
         issue = issue_link!(20315, "pantsbuild/pants")
     );
     let tmpdir = create_tempdir().unwrap();
+
+    let scie_base_dir = tmpdir.path().join("scie-base");
+
+    let pants_release = "2.19.1";
+    let pants_toml_content = format!(
+        r#"
+        [GLOBAL]
+        pants_version = "{pants_release}"
+        "#
+    );
+    let project_dir = tmpdir.path().join("project");
+    let pants_toml = project_dir.join("pants.toml");
+    write_file(&pants_toml, false, pants_toml_content).unwrap();
+
     // Bootstrap a new unseen version of Pants to verify there is no extra output on stdout besides
     // the requested output from the pants command.
     let (output, _stderr) = assert_stderr_output(
         Command::new(scie_pants_scie)
             .arg("-V")
-            .env("PANTS_VERSION", "2.19.1")
+            .current_dir(&project_dir)
             // Customise where SCIE stores its caches to force a bootstrap...
-            .env("SCIE_BASE", tmpdir.path())
+            .env("SCIE_BASE", scie_base_dir)
             .stdout(Stdio::piped()),
         // ...but still assert bootstrap messages to ensure we actually bootstrapped pants during this execution.
         vec![
diff --git a/pants.toml b/pants.toml
index 5623f32..7bdb35a 100644
--- a/pants.toml
+++ b/pants.toml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [GLOBAL]
-pants_version = "2.21.0"
+pants_version = "2.23.0"
 
 backend_packages = [
     "pants.backend.python",
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ backend_packages = [
     "pants.backend.python.typecheck.mypy",
 ]
 
+# FIXME #421: remove this once scie-pants's CI doesn't use these versions
+allow_deprecated_macos_before_12 = true
+
 [anonymous-telemetry]
 enabled = true
 repo_id = "e0b99427-9bc2-4f6a-b197-f5f378849b15"