diff --git a/crates/storage/Cargo.toml b/crates/storage/Cargo.toml
index 58ab465..1e95dc0 100644
--- a/crates/storage/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/storage/Cargo.toml
@@ -8,7 +8,12 @@ description = "SQLite persistence, BM25 search, and file storage for Kon"
 kon-core = { path = "../core" }
 
 # SQLite with compile-time checked queries
-sqlx = { version = "0.8", features = ["sqlite", "runtime-tokio"] }
+# default-features = false strips sqlx's `any`, `macros`, `migrate`, `json` —
+# none of which this crate uses (it calls sqlx::query() / query_scalar()
+# directly and runs its own migration machinery). Cuts ~40% of sqlx's
+# compile graph, most visibly on Windows MSVC where each proc-macro crate
+# (which `macros` pulls in) becomes a slow .dll link.
+sqlx = { version = "0.8", default-features = false, features = ["runtime-tokio", "sqlite"] }
 
 # Async runtime
 tokio = { version = "1", features = ["rt", "sync", "macros"] }
diff --git a/src-tauri/Cargo.toml b/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
index 93b1ebf..e9d5782 100644
--- a/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
+++ b/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
@@ -42,7 +42,9 @@ arboard = "3.6.1"
 # SqlitePool is named directly from src-tauri/src/lib.rs (the AppState
 # stores it). Must be unconditional, not Linux-only — naming a type from
 # a transitive dep requires the dep be listed here too.
-sqlx = { version = "0.8", features = ["sqlite", "runtime-tokio"] }
+# See crates/storage/Cargo.toml — default-features = false drops macros /
+# migrate / any / json which this crate doesn't use. Only names SqlitePool.
+sqlx = { version = "0.8", default-features = false, features = ["runtime-tokio", "sqlite"] }
 uuid = { version = "1", features = ["v4"] }
 
 [target.'cfg(target_os = "linux")'.dependencies]