diff --git a/local/recipes/dev/libclc/recipe.toml b/local/recipes/dev/libclc/recipe.toml
index c2b51013fc..8b25aee952 100644
--- a/local/recipes/dev/libclc/recipe.toml
+++ b/local/recipes/dev/libclc/recipe.toml
@@ -40,9 +40,16 @@ template = "custom"
 # is absent and the build errors "host clang not found". We deliberately do NOT
 # pull llvm21.dev (the Redox-cross LLVM) — it would drop a SECOND, conflicting
 # usr/lib/cmake/llvm into the sysroot and find_package would pick the wrong one.
-dependencies = []
-dev-dependencies = [
+# NOTE: llvm-native (main) MUST be in `dependencies`, not dev-dependencies:
+# the cookbook's cook-tree (src/cook/tree.rs) only follows `dependencies` when
+# resolving what to COOK (--with-package-deps), so a dev-only dep is staged but
+# never built -> "stage.pkgar No such file or directory". Cooking llvm-native
+# (main) produces ALL its subpackage pkgars (main + .dev + .runtime); we then
+# stage the two we need as dev-dependencies (build-only).
+dependencies = [
     "llvm-native",
+]
+dev-dependencies = [
     "llvm-native.dev",
     "llvm-native.runtime",
 ]