diff --git a/frontend/vite.config.js b/frontend/vite.config.js
index 3ecfa0a..91d85bc 100644
--- a/frontend/vite.config.js
+++ b/frontend/vite.config.js
@@ -1,9 +1,17 @@
+import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
+import path from "node:path";
 import { defineConfig } from "vite";
 import { sveltekit } from "@sveltejs/kit/vite";
 
 // @ts-expect-error process is a nodejs global
 const host = process.env.TAURI_DEV_HOST;
 
+// The Rust/Tauri project dir (../src relative to this file) — an absolute
+// path, not a bare "**/src/**" glob, because this repo has two directories
+// named `src`: this one (frontend/src, which must be watched for HMR) and
+// the sibling Rust crate (../src, which must not be).
+const rustProjectDir = path.resolve(path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), "../src");
+
 // https://vite.dev/config/
 export default defineConfig(async () => ({
   plugins: [sveltekit()],
@@ -25,8 +33,8 @@ export default defineConfig(async () => ({
         }
       : undefined,
     watch: {
-      // 3. tell Vite to ignore watching `src-tauri`
-      ignored: ["**/src-tauri/**"],
+      // 3. tell Vite to ignore watching the Tauri/Rust project dir
+      ignored: [`${rustProjectDir}/**`],
     },
   },
 }));
diff --git a/src/Cargo.toml b/src/Cargo.toml
index f0105fd..85c808a 100644
--- a/src/Cargo.toml
+++ b/src/Cargo.toml
@@ -17,6 +17,15 @@ crate-type = ["staticlib", "cdylib", "rlib"]
 [build-dependencies]
 tauri-build = { version = "2", features = [] }
 
+[features]
+# Default-on so a plain `cargo build --release` produces a standalone binary
+# that embeds the built frontend instead of loading it from `devUrl` —
+# `cargo tauri dev` strips this back off via `--no-default-features` so dev
+# builds keep talking to the Vite dev server. See
+# https://v2.tauri.app/reference/cargo-features/#custom-protocol
+default = ["custom-protocol"]
+custom-protocol = ["tauri/custom-protocol"]
+
 [dependencies]
 tauri = { version = "2", features = ["protocol-asset"] }
 tauri-plugin-opener = "2"