diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f50a076..1ad5325 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ All notable changes to this project are documented here. The format is based on
 - Removed dead code surfaced by an unused-export scan (a few unused motion,
   color, and UI helpers) and fixed a stale "four modes" comment in
   `packages/shared/src/modes.ts`.
+- Release build: `onnxruntime-node` (pulled in by the on-device mic via
+  `@huggingface/transformers`) ships no darwin/x64 prebuilt, which broke the
+  `darwin-x64` binary build and blocked the release. It is now marked external
+  for that target only; the mic's lazy import degrades gracefully on Intel Macs.
 
 ## [2.0.2] - 2026-06-18
 
diff --git a/scripts/build.ts b/scripts/build.ts
index 03f1ab4..353cb74 100644
--- a/scripts/build.ts
+++ b/scripts/build.ts
@@ -191,8 +191,17 @@ for (const t of targets) {
   // on launch. `Bun.build({ plugins })` lets us load the Solid babel plugin
   // directly, producing the correct lazy-children shape (and matching dev
   // mode, where bunfig.toml's preload registers the same plugin).
+  // onnxruntime-node (pulled in by @huggingface/transformers for the on-device
+  // mic) ships no darwin/x64 prebuilt — its bin/napi-v6/ has darwin/arm64 only.
+  // Its binding.js does `require(`../bin/napi-v6/${platform}/${arch}/…node`)`,
+  // so bundling on the Intel-mac runner can't resolve darwin/x64 and the build
+  // fails. Mark it external there: the binary still builds, and the mic's lazy
+  // `import("@huggingface/transformers")` (mic.ts) catches the missing module
+  // and degrades gracefully — Intel Macs can't run the native runtime anyway.
+  const external = t.name === "darwin-x64" ? ["onnxruntime-node"] : undefined
   const result = await Bun.build({
     entrypoints: [ENTRY],
+    external,
     compile: {
       target: t.bun as Bun.Build.CompileTarget,
       outfile: outBase,