diff --git a/.bazelrc b/.bazelrc
index 3a49a22c20..34287b1074 100644
--- a/.bazelrc
+++ b/.bazelrc
@@ -65,6 +65,10 @@ common:ci --verbose_failures
 common:ci --build_metadata=REPO_URL=https://github.com/openai/codex.git
 common:ci --build_metadata=ROLE=CI
 common:ci --build_metadata=VISIBILITY=PUBLIC
+# rules_rust derives debug level from Bazel toolchain/compilation-mode settings,
+# not Cargo profiles. Keep CI Rust actions explicit and lean.
+common:ci --@rules_rust//rust/settings:extra_rustc_flag=-Cdebuginfo=0
+common:ci --@rules_rust//rust/settings:extra_exec_rustc_flag=-Cdebuginfo=0
 
 # Disable disk cache in CI since we have a remote one and aren't using persistent workers.
 common:ci --disk_cache=
diff --git a/codex-rs/Cargo.toml b/codex-rs/Cargo.toml
index ed6bdc0fd6..ccabd43da0 100644
--- a/codex-rs/Cargo.toml
+++ b/codex-rs/Cargo.toml
@@ -424,6 +424,11 @@ ignored = [
     "codex-v8-poc",
 ]
 
+[profile.dev]
+# Keep line tables/backtraces while avoiding expensive full variable debug info
+# across local dev builds.
+debug = 1
+
 [profile.release]
 lto = "fat"
 split-debuginfo = "off"