diff --git a/.changelog/12807.txt b/.changelog/12807.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..60111c7471f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/12807.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+```release-note:improvement
+cli: `operator debug` command now skips generating pprofs to avoid a panic on unsupported versions of Nomad older than 0.12.0
+```