diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index cef4e51..1444c6b 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -33,9 +33,27 @@ set_target_properties(_lbug
         RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/build/ladybug"
         ARCHIVE_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/build/ladybug")
 
-target_link_libraries(_lbug
-        PRIVATE
-        lbug)
+if(LBUG_API_USE_PRECOMPILED_LIB)
+    if(NOT LBUG_API_PRECOMPILED_LIB_PATH)
+        message(FATAL_ERROR "LBUG_API_PRECOMPILED_LIB_PATH must be set when LBUG_API_USE_PRECOMPILED_LIB is enabled.")
+    endif()
+    target_link_libraries(_lbug
+            PRIVATE
+            ${LBUG_API_PRECOMPILED_LIB_PATH}
+            # lbug_link_deps carries all third-party static libs (utf8proc, re2,
+            # antlr4, zstd, …) that lbug.lib references but does not bundle on
+            # Windows. On Linux/macOS the precompiled liblbug.a is a fat archive
+            # with those objects already merged in, so this is a no-op there.
+            lbug_link_deps)
+    # The precompiled lib is always a static archive. Without LBUG_STATIC_DEFINE,
+    # api.h decorates every LBUG_API symbol with __declspec(dllimport) on Windows,
+    # which causes LNK2001 unresolved-symbol errors because no DLL is present.
+    target_compile_definitions(_lbug PRIVATE LBUG_STATIC_DEFINE)
+else()
+    target_link_libraries(_lbug
+            PRIVATE
+            lbug)
+endif()
 
 target_include_directories(
         _lbug