diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 8a4c600cc76f8fd80b44bc8ee84e90959a9bde5a..cfe2896a4397dd61613381928d830d729c95cb1a 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ PATH
   remote: gems/gitlab-backup-cli
   specs:
     gitlab-backup-cli (0.0.1)
+      activerecord (>= 7)
       activesupport (>= 7)
       addressable (~> 2.8)
       concurrent-ruby (~> 1.1)
diff --git a/Gemfile.next.lock b/Gemfile.next.lock
index 94064d5c9eec6d545d78ee38ebe88911faf81252..8a62e4a66be4de3b499d5216585972a1254c882d 100644
--- a/Gemfile.next.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.next.lock
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ PATH
   remote: gems/gitlab-backup-cli
   specs:
     gitlab-backup-cli (0.0.1)
+      activerecord (>= 7)
       activesupport (>= 7)
       addressable (~> 2.8)
       concurrent-ruby (~> 1.1)
diff --git a/gems/gitlab-backup-cli/Gemfile.lock b/gems/gitlab-backup-cli/Gemfile.lock
index ab7b11b35677171d7fb4a8edc4deaa017fe381c5..8d3bc0283038668520a8f867fdb3bdc2de520dbb 100644
--- a/gems/gitlab-backup-cli/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/gems/gitlab-backup-cli/Gemfile.lock
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ PATH
   remote: .
   specs:
     gitlab-backup-cli (0.0.1)
+      activerecord (>= 7)
       activesupport (>= 7)
       addressable (~> 2.8)
       concurrent-ruby (~> 1.1)
diff --git a/gems/gitlab-backup-cli/gitlab-backup-cli.gemspec b/gems/gitlab-backup-cli/gitlab-backup-cli.gemspec
index 54eca6ff6bf8607f029ca0249c90d4ec0aff6261..d8ed73b5cd334ff63badc4cc3817279d1c8edd24 100644
--- a/gems/gitlab-backup-cli/gitlab-backup-cli.gemspec
+++ b/gems/gitlab-backup-cli/gitlab-backup-cli.gemspec
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.executables = spec.files.grep(%r{\Aexe/}) { |f| File.basename(f) }
   spec.require_paths = ["lib"]
 
+  spec.add_dependency "activerecord", ">= 7"
   spec.add_dependency "activesupport", ">= 7"
   spec.add_dependency "googleauth", "~> 1.8.1" # https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/449019
   spec.add_dependency "google-cloud-storage_transfer", "~> 1.2.0"
diff --git a/gems/gitlab-backup-cli/lib/gitlab/backup/cli.rb b/gems/gitlab-backup-cli/lib/gitlab/backup/cli.rb
index ee6fef06a67d823fe59a4e9a772907a95469fa61..4b60ca1e7a97835348f161e5345211b505c7f4d6 100644
--- a/gems/gitlab-backup-cli/lib/gitlab/backup/cli.rb
+++ b/gems/gitlab-backup-cli/lib/gitlab/backup/cli.rb
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 # while we have this dependency, we need this external require
 require "rainbow/ext/string"
 require 'active_support/all'
+require 'active_record'
 
 module Gitlab
   module Backup