diff --git a/cmake/targets/BuildBun.cmake b/cmake/targets/BuildBun.cmake
index ede0b6c305..664ed8e1dc 100644
--- a/cmake/targets/BuildBun.cmake
+++ b/cmake/targets/BuildBun.cmake
@@ -951,14 +951,22 @@ endif()
 
 if(APPLE)
   target_link_options(${bun} PUBLIC
-    -dead_strip
-    -dead_strip_dylibs
     -Wl,-ld_new
     -Wl,-no_compact_unwind
     -Wl,-stack_size,0x1200000
     -fno-keep-static-consts
     -Wl,-map,${bun}.linker-map
   )
+
+  # don't strip in debug, this seems to be needed so that the Zig std library
+  # `*dbHelper` DWARF symbols (used by LLDB for pretty printing) are in the
+  # output executable
+  if(NOT DEBUG)
+    target_link_options(${bun} PUBLIC
+      -dead_strip
+      -dead_strip_dylibs
+    )
+  endif()
 endif()
 
 if(LINUX)
@@ -995,7 +1003,6 @@ if(LINUX)
     -Wl,-no-pie
     -Wl,-icf=safe
     -Wl,--as-needed
-    -Wl,--gc-sections
     -Wl,-z,stack-size=12800000
     -Wl,--compress-debug-sections=zlib
     -Wl,-z,lazy
@@ -1011,6 +1018,15 @@ if(LINUX)
     -Wl,--build-id=sha1  # Better for debugging than default
     -Wl,-Map=${bun}.linker-map
   )
+
+  # don't strip in debug, this seems to be needed so that the Zig std library
+  # `*dbHelper` DWARF symbols (used by LLDB for pretty printing) are in the
+  # output executable
+  if(NOT DEBUG)
+    target_link_options(${bun} PUBLIC
+      -Wl,--gc-sections
+    )
+  endif()
 endif()
 
 # --- Symbols list ---