diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 48244e2..1569480 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -11,18 +11,18 @@ wire-compatible and share the driver, so this covers both.
 `requirements.txt`:
 
 ```
-mysql @ git+ssh://git@git.rethinkstudios.io/rethink-public/mysql.git@v0.1.2
+mysql @ git+ssh://git@git.rethinkstudios.io/rethink-public/mysql.git@v0.1.3
 ```
 
 Direct:
 
 ```bash
-pip install "mysql @ git+ssh://git@git.rethinkstudios.io/rethink-public/mysql.git@v0.1.2"
+pip install "mysql @ git+ssh://git@git.rethinkstudios.io/rethink-public/mysql.git@v0.1.3"
 ```
 
 Pulls `aiomysql` (which pulls `PyMySQL`).
 
-Drop the `@v0.1.2` suffix from the line above to install the latest unpinned.
+Drop the `@v0.1.3` suffix from the line above to install the latest unpinned.
 
 ## The two-layer API
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 8212afc..22dd8d9 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "hatchling.build"
 
 [project]
 name = "mysql"
-version = "0.1.2"
+version = "0.1.3"
 description = "async mysql/mariadb wrapper over aiomysql: two-layer API (friendly verbs + raw escape hatch), fail-loud, config-free"
 requires-python = ">=3.10"
 dependencies = [
diff --git a/src/mysql/mysql.py b/src/mysql/mysql.py
index 410d6f5..d1a7f8a 100644
--- a/src/mysql/mysql.py
+++ b/src/mysql/mysql.py
@@ -92,9 +92,17 @@ class MysqlDB:
 
         host/port/db/user/password/minsize/maxsize are injected by the caller. extra
         pool_kwargs pass through to aiomysql.create_pool (unix_socket, ssl, charset, ...).
-        rows come back as dicts (DictCursor) and autocommit is on by default; both can be
-        overridden via pool_kwargs.
+        rows come back as dicts (DictCursor), overridable via pool_kwargs. autocommit is
+        always on: layer-1 verbs and raw execute() rely on it to commit on their own, so
+        `autocommit=False` in pool_kwargs is rejected (use transaction() for atomic
+        multi-statement blocks instead — it disables autocommit for just that block).
         """
+        if pool_kwargs.get("autocommit") is False:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "mysql: autocommit=False is not supported via pool_kwargs — layer-1 verbs and "
+                "raw execute() need autocommit to persist their writes; use db.transaction() "
+                "for an atomic multi-statement block instead"
+            )
         self._config = dict(
             host=host,
             port=port,
@@ -409,9 +417,18 @@ class _Transaction:
 def _where(conditions: Optional[Dict[str, Any]]) -> tuple:
     """build a parameterized `WHERE col = %s AND ...` clause + the params list
 
-    returns ("", []) when there are no conditions. equality only.
+    returns ("", []) when there are no conditions. equality only. a None value renders as
+    `col IS NULL` (not `col = %s` bound to NULL, which sql never matches) and does not
+    consume a placeholder.
     """
     if not conditions:
         return "", []
-    clause = " AND ".join(f"{_quote_ident(c)} = %s" for c in conditions)
-    return f" WHERE {clause}", list(conditions.values())
+    parts = []
+    params = []
+    for col, val in conditions.items():
+        if val is None:
+            parts.append(f"{_quote_ident(col)} IS NULL")
+        else:
+            params.append(val)
+            parts.append(f"{_quote_ident(col)} = %s")
+    return f" WHERE {' AND '.join(parts)}", params