diff --git a/.github/stable/external.txt b/.github/stable/external.txt
index e4e2acf314c..f5c4fc5daaa 100644
--- a/.github/stable/external.txt
+++ b/.github/stable/external.txt
@@ -109,8 +109,8 @@ packaging==24.0
 pandocfilters==1.5.1
 parso==0.8.4
 pathspec==0.12.1
-PennyLane-Catalyst==0.5.0
-PennyLane_Lightning==0.35.1
+PennyLane-Catalyst==0.6.0
+PennyLane_Lightning==0.36.0
 pexpect==4.9.0
 pillow==10.3.0
 platformdirs==4.2.0
diff --git a/.github/workflows/upload.yml b/.github/workflows/upload.yml
index 4e901bd58d4..393c9a4c377 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/upload.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/upload.yml
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ on:
 jobs:
   tests:
     uses: ./.github/workflows/interface-unit-tests.yml
+    secrets:
+      codecov_token: ${{ secrets.CODECOV_TOKEN }}
     with:
       branch: ${{ github.ref }}
 
diff --git a/doc/releases/changelog-0.36.0.md b/doc/releases/changelog-0.36.0.md
index dde4b503a15..d5d404d12f5 100644
--- a/doc/releases/changelog-0.36.0.md
+++ b/doc/releases/changelog-0.36.0.md
@@ -877,7 +877,7 @@
 * Fixed a bug in `qml.math.kron` that makes Torch incompatible with NumPy.
   [(#5540)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane/pull/5540)
 
-* Fixes a bug in `_group_measurements` that fails to group measurements with commuting observables when they are operands of `Prod`.
+* Fixed a bug in `_group_measurements` that fails to group measurements with commuting observables when they are operands of `Prod`.
   [(#5525)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane/pull/5525)
 
 * `qml.equal` can now be used with sums and products that contain operators on no wires like `I` and `GlobalPhase`.
@@ -887,6 +887,9 @@
   between `op.has_diagonalzing_gates` and `op.diagonalizing_gates()`
   [(#5603)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane/pull/5603)
 
+* Updated the `method` kwarg of `qml.TrotterProduct().error()` to be more clear that we are computing upper-bounds.
+  [(#5637)](https://github.com/PennyLaneAI/pennylane/pull/5637)
+
 <h3>Contributors ✍️</h3>
 
 This release contains contributions from (in alphabetical order):
diff --git a/pennylane/compiler/compiler.py b/pennylane/compiler/compiler.py
index fd355fa472f..816705bf35c 100644
--- a/pennylane/compiler/compiler.py
+++ b/pennylane/compiler/compiler.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 
 from semantic_version import Version
 
-PL_CATALYST_MIN_VERSION = Version("0.5.0")
+PL_CATALYST_MIN_VERSION = Version("0.6.0")
 
 
 class CompileError(Exception):
diff --git a/pennylane/ops/functions/dot.py b/pennylane/ops/functions/dot.py
index 727aa9a0927..b6bed90c72e 100644
--- a/pennylane/ops/functions/dot.py
+++ b/pennylane/ops/functions/dot.py
@@ -132,6 +132,12 @@ def dot(
         :ref:`Pauli Graph Colouring<graph_colouring>` and :func:`~pennylane.pauli.group_observables`.
     """
 
+    for t in (Operator, PauliWord, PauliSentence):
+        if isinstance(ops, t):
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"ops must be an Iterable of {t.__name__}'s, not a {t.__name__} itself."
+            )
+
     if len(coeffs) != len(ops):
         raise ValueError("Number of coefficients and operators does not match.")
     if len(coeffs) == 0 and len(ops) == 0:
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index fd0c1c3da57..d1b84d2de59 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
     "semantic-version>=2.7",
     "autoray>=0.6.1",
     "cachetools",
-    "pennylane-lightning>=0.35",
+    "pennylane-lightning>=0.36",
     "requests",
     "typing_extensions",
 ]
diff --git a/tests/test_compiler.py b/tests/test_compiler.py
index 14311109a4c..904fbad2964 100644
--- a/tests/test_compiler.py
+++ b/tests/test_compiler.py
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ def catalyst_incompatible_version():
 
 @pytest.mark.usefixtures("catalyst_incompatible_version")
 def test_catalyst_incompatible():
-    """Test qjit with an incompatible Catalyst version < 0.4.0"""
+    """Test qjit with an incompatible Catalyst version that's lower than required."""
 
     dev = qml.device("lightning.qubit", wires=1)
 
@@ -54,7 +54,8 @@ def circuit():
         return qml.state()
 
     with pytest.raises(
-        CompileError, match="PennyLane-Catalyst 0.5.0 or greater is required, but installed 0.0.1"
+        CompileError,
+        match="PennyLane-Catalyst 0.[0-9]+.0 or greater is required, but installed 0.0.1",
     ):
         qml.qjit(circuit)()