diff --git a/Manifest.toml b/Manifest.toml
index a2872232b..dc7cf9773 100644
--- a/Manifest.toml
+++ b/Manifest.toml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 julia_version = "1.12.4"
 manifest_format = "2.0"
-project_hash = "fdfadea8426ae4ad040aa36f8a37d6d28b17564f"
+project_hash = "0ee92832e5f1b3533f8787c1ef956580dc03292e"
 
 [[deps.ADTypes]]
 git-tree-sha1 = "f7304359109c768cf32dc5fa2d371565bb63b68a"
@@ -1094,6 +1094,14 @@ version = "1.29.4"
     [deps.JuMP.weakdeps]
     DimensionalData = "0703355e-b756-11e9-17c0-8b28908087d0"
 
+[[deps.JuliaC]]
+deps = ["LazyArtifacts", "Libdl", "Mmap", "ObjectFile", "PackageCompiler", "Patchelf_jll", "Pkg", "RelocatableFolders", "StructIO"]
+git-tree-sha1 = "95eb12ccaa00c52e376c342a0056a0a5b811caa3"
+repo-rev = "default_cpu_target"
+repo-url = "https://github.com/visr/JuliaC.jl"
+uuid = "acedd4c2-ced6-4a15-accc-2607eb759ba2"
+version = "0.3.0"
+
 [[deps.JuliaInterpreter]]
 deps = ["CodeTracking", "InteractiveUtils", "Random", "UUIDs"]
 git-tree-sha1 = "80580012d4ed5a3e8b18c7cd86cebe4b816d17a6"
@@ -1644,6 +1652,12 @@ weakdeps = ["ForwardDiff"]
     [deps.NonlinearSolveSpectralMethods.extensions]
     NonlinearSolveSpectralMethodsForwardDiffExt = "ForwardDiff"
 
+[[deps.ObjectFile]]
+deps = ["Reexport", "StructIO"]
+git-tree-sha1 = "22faba70c22d2f03e60fbc61da99c4ebfc3eb9ba"
+uuid = "d8793406-e978-5875-9003-1fc021f44a92"
+version = "0.5.0"
+
 [[deps.OffsetArrays]]
 git-tree-sha1 = "117432e406b5c023f665fa73dc26e79ec3630151"
 uuid = "6fe1bfb0-de20-5000-8ca7-80f57d26f881"
@@ -1800,6 +1814,12 @@ git-tree-sha1 = "7d2f8f21da5db6a806faf7b9b292296da42b2810"
 uuid = "69de0a69-1ddd-5017-9359-2bf0b02dc9f0"
 version = "2.8.3"
 
+[[deps.Patchelf_jll]]
+deps = ["Artifacts", "CompilerSupportLibraries_jll", "JLLWrappers", "Libdl"]
+git-tree-sha1 = "ad1cab3e8273c912f722f40779e20f3e29d58f1f"
+uuid = "f2cf89d6-2bfd-5c44-bd2c-068eea195c0c"
+version = "0.18.0+0"
+
 [[deps.Pidfile]]
 deps = ["FileWatching", "Test"]
 git-tree-sha1 = "2d8aaf8ee10df53d0dfb9b8ee44ae7c04ced2b03"
@@ -2401,6 +2421,11 @@ version = "0.7.2"
     SparseArrays = "2f01184e-e22b-5df5-ae63-d93ebab69eaf"
     StaticArrays = "90137ffa-7385-5640-81b9-e52037218182"
 
+[[deps.StructIO]]
+git-tree-sha1 = "c581be48ae1cbf83e899b14c07a807e1787512cc"
+uuid = "53d494c1-5632-5724-8f4c-31dff12d585f"
+version = "0.3.1"
+
 [[deps.StructTypes]]
 deps = ["Dates", "UUIDs"]
 git-tree-sha1 = "159331b30e94d7b11379037feeb9b690950cace8"
diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index f668a7daf..5cc69ba69 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ InteractiveUtils = "b77e0a4c-d291-57a0-90e8-8db25a27a240"
 IterTools = "c8e1da08-722c-5040-9ed9-7db0dc04731e"
 JSON3 = "0f8b85d8-7281-11e9-16c2-39a750bddbf1"
 JuMP = "4076af6c-e467-56ae-b986-b466b2749572"
+JuliaC = "acedd4c2-ced6-4a15-accc-2607eb759ba2"
 JuliaInterpreter = "aa1ae85d-cabe-5617-a682-6adf51b2e16a"
 LibGit2 = "76f85450-5226-5b5a-8eaa-529ad045b433"
 LinearAlgebra = "37e2e46d-f89d-539d-b4ee-838fcccc9c8e"
@@ -80,6 +81,7 @@ TestItemRunner = "f8b46487-2199-4994-9208-9a1283c18c0a"
 TranscodingStreams = "3bb67fe8-82b1-5028-8e26-92a6c54297fa"
 
 [sources]
+JuliaC = {rev = "default_cpu_target", url = "https://github.com/visr/JuliaC.jl"}
 PackageCompiler = {rev = "bundle_less_artifacts_v1.12", url = "https://github.com/visr/PackageCompiler.jl"}
 Ribasim = {path = "core"}
 
diff --git a/build/build.jl b/build/build.jl
index ecf177dc5..b53d1c573 100644
--- a/build/build.jl
+++ b/build/build.jl
@@ -1,27 +1,47 @@
-using Artifacts
-using PackageCompiler
 using TOML
 using LibGit2
+using JuliaC
+using Preferences: set_preferences!, delete_preferences!
+using UUIDs: UUID
+import Pkg
 
 function (@main)(_)::Cint
-    project_dir = "../core"
-    license_file = "../LICENSE"
-    output_dir = "ribasim"
-    git_repo = ".."
-
-    # change directory to this script's location
-    cd(@__DIR__)
-
-    create_library(
-        project_dir,
-        output_dir;
-        lib_name = "libribasim",
-        precompile_execution_file = "precompile.jl",
-        include_lazy_artifacts = false,
-        include_transitive_dependencies = false,
-        include_preferences = true,
-        force = true,
+    project_dir = "core"
+    license_file = "LICENSE"
+    output_dir = "build/ribasim"
+    git_repo = "."
+
+    # Set release options in core/LocalPreferences.toml
+    uuid = UUID("aac5e3d9-0b8f-4d4f-8241-b1a7a9632635")  # Ribasim
+    Pkg.activate("core")
+    set_preferences!(uuid, "precompile_workload" => true; force = true)
+    Pkg.activate(".")
+
+    rm(output_dir; force = true, recursive = true)
+
+    image_recipe = ImageRecipe(;
+        output_type = "--output-lib",
+        file = "build/libribasim.jl",
+        project = project_dir,
+        add_ccallables = true,
+        verbose = true,
+    )
+    link_recipe = LinkRecipe(;
+        image_recipe,
+        outname = "build/ribasim/libribasim",
+        rpath = "@bundle"
     )
+    bundle_recipe = BundleRecipe(; link_recipe, output_dir)
+
+    compile_products(image_recipe)
+    link_products(link_recipe)
+    bundle_products(bundle_recipe)
+
+    # On Windows, remove the import library from the bundle root
+    if Sys.iswindows()
+        import_lib_path = joinpath(output_dir, "libribasim.dll.a")
+        rm(import_lib_path)
+    end
 
     add_metadata(project_dir, license_file, output_dir, git_repo, readme_start)
 
@@ -33,10 +53,16 @@ function (@main)(_)::Cint
         env["RUSTFLAGS"] = "-C link-args=/STACK:8388608"
     end
 
-    run(Cmd(`cargo build --release`; dir = "cli", env))
+    run(Cmd(`cargo build --release`; dir = "build/cli", env))
     ribasim = Sys.iswindows() ? "ribasim.exe" : "ribasim"
-    mkpath("ribasim/bin")
-    cp("cli/target/release/$ribasim", "ribasim/bin/$ribasim"; force = true)
+    mkpath("build/ribasim/bin")
+    cp("build/cli/target/release/$ribasim", "build/ribasim/bin/$ribasim"; force = true)
+
+    # Restore development options in core/LocalPreferences.toml
+    Pkg.activate("core")
+    delete_preferences!(uuid, "precompile_workload"; force = true)
+    Pkg.activate(".")
+
     return 0
 end
 
@@ -78,8 +104,7 @@ function add_metadata(project_dir, license_file, output_dir, git_repo, readme)
         TOML.print(io, dict)
     end
 
-    # a stripped Project.toml is already added in the same location by PackageCompiler
-    # however it is better to copy the original, since it includes the version and compat
+    # Copy the Project.toml and Manifest.toml so we can see all dependencies and versions
     cp(
         normpath(project_dir, "Project.toml"),
         normpath(output_dir, "share/julia/Project.toml");
@@ -129,5 +154,5 @@ function add_metadata(project_dir, license_file, output_dir, git_repo, readme)
     end
 
     # Override the Cargo.toml file with the git version
-    return set_version("cli/Cargo.toml", tag)
+    return set_version("build/cli/Cargo.toml", tag)
 end
diff --git a/core/src/libribasim.jl b/build/libribasim.jl
similarity index 98%
rename from core/src/libribasim.jl
rename to build/libribasim.jl
index 45fdb79d7..ad3677e68 100644
--- a/core/src/libribasim.jl
+++ b/build/libribasim.jl
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
-module libribasim
-
 import BasicModelInterface as BMI
-import ..Ribasim
+import Ribasim
 using SciMLBase: successful_retcode
 
 # globals
@@ -233,5 +231,3 @@ function unsafe_write_to_cstring!(dest::Cstring, src::String)::Nothing
     unsafe_store!(dest_ptr, '\0', length(src) + 1)
     return nothing
 end
-
-end # module libribasim
diff --git a/build/precompile.jl b/build/precompile.jl
deleted file mode 100644
index bdb722f92..000000000
--- a/build/precompile.jl
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
-# Workflow that will compile a lot of the code we will need.
-# With the purpose of reducing the latency for compiled binaries.
-
-using Preferences, UUIDs
-
-uuid = UUID("aac5e3d9-0b8f-4d4f-8241-b1a7a9632635")  # Ribasim
-
-set_preferences!(uuid, "precompile_workload" => true; force = true)
-using Ribasim
-
-toml_path = normpath(@__DIR__, "../generated_testmodels/basic/ribasim.toml")
-# This should now only take a second or less
-@assert Ribasim.main(toml_path) == 0
-
-# Remove preferences to avoid affecting normal Ribasim usage
-set_preferences!(uuid, "precompile_workload" => missing; force = true)
diff --git a/core/src/Ribasim.jl b/core/src/Ribasim.jl
index 3b89d2011..6fff40e10 100644
--- a/core/src/Ribasim.jl
+++ b/core/src/Ribasim.jl
@@ -169,8 +169,6 @@ using Printf: @sprintf
 
 using Base.Threads: nthreads
 
-export libribasim
-
 include("carrays.jl")
 using .CArrays: CVector, getaxes, getdata
 include("schema.jl")
@@ -193,7 +191,6 @@ include("bmi.jl")
 include("callback.jl")
 include("concentration.jl")
 include("main.jl")
-include("libribasim.jl")
 
 @setup_workload begin
     toml_path = normpath(@__DIR__, "../../generated_testmodels/basic/ribasim.toml")
diff --git a/core/test/libribasim_test.jl b/core/test/libribasim_test.jl
index c26cb019e..aac1d3ccc 100644
--- a/core/test/libribasim_test.jl
+++ b/core/test/libribasim_test.jl
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
-@testitem "libribasim" begin
+@testmodule libribasim begin
+    include("../../build/libribasim.jl")
+end
+
+@testitem "libribasim" setup = [libribasim] begin
     toml_path = normpath(@__DIR__, "../../generated_testmodels/basic/ribasim.toml")
 
     # data from which we create pointers for libribasim
diff --git a/pixi.toml b/pixi.toml
index 983096e69..d9f8ef51f 100644
--- a/pixi.toml
+++ b/pixi.toml
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ lint = { depends-on = [
     "mypy-ribasim-qgis",
 ] }
 # Build
-build = { "cmd" = "julia --project --check-bounds=yes build.jl", cwd = "build", depends-on = [
+build = { "cmd" = "julia --project --check-bounds=yes build/build.jl", depends-on = [
     "generate-testmodels",
     "initialize-julia",
 ] }