diff --git a/installer-gui/src-tauri/binaries/.gitignore b/installer-gui/src-tauri/binaries/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d6b7ef3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/installer-gui/src-tauri/binaries/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+*
+!.gitignore
diff --git a/installer-gui/src-tauri/build.rs b/installer-gui/src-tauri/build.rs
index d860e1e..3528002 100644
--- a/installer-gui/src-tauri/build.rs
+++ b/installer-gui/src-tauri/build.rs
@@ -1,3 +1,52 @@
+use std::env::consts::EXE_SUFFIX;
+use std::path::PathBuf;
+
 fn main() {
+    println!("cargo::rerun-if-env-changed=INSTALLER_PATH");
+    println!("cargo::rerun-if-env-changed=SKIP_INSTALLER_COPY");
+
+    let destination = get_installer_destination();
+    if std::env::var_os("SKIP_INSTALLER_COPY").is_none() {
+        let cli_installer =
+            std::env::var_os("INSTALLER_PATH").map_or_else(default_installer_path, PathBuf::from);
+        if !cli_installer.exists() {
+            println!(
+                "cargo::error=CLI installer binary not present at {}",
+                cli_installer.display()
+            );
+            std::process::exit(0);
+        }
+        std::fs::copy(&cli_installer, &destination).unwrap();
+        println!("cargo::rerun-if-changed={}", cli_installer.display());
+        println!("cargo::rerun-if-changed={}", destination.display());
+    } else if !destination.exists() {
+        // if SKIP_INSTALLER_COPY is set, make sure something exists at destination so the build succeeds
+        std::fs::write(&destination, []).unwrap();
+    }
+
     tauri_build::build()
 }
+
+fn default_installer_path() -> PathBuf {
+    // the approach used here was taken from https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/9661#issuecomment-1722358176
+    let out_dir = PathBuf::from(std::env::var("OUT_DIR").unwrap());
+    let profile = std::env::var("PROFILE").unwrap();
+    let profile_dir = out_dir
+        .ancestors()
+        .find(|&path| path.ends_with(&profile))
+        .unwrap();
+
+    profile_dir.join(format!("installer{EXE_SUFFIX}"))
+}
+
+fn get_installer_destination() -> PathBuf {
+    // tauri expects included binaries to have the target triple appended to the file name like
+    // this. see https://tauri.app/develop/sidecar/
+    let target_triple = std::env::var("TARGET").unwrap();
+    [
+        "binaries",
+        &format!("installer-cli-{target_triple}{EXE_SUFFIX}"),
+    ]
+    .iter()
+    .collect()
+}
diff --git a/installer-gui/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json b/installer-gui/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
index bcdf8e6..9417199 100644
--- a/installer-gui/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
+++ b/installer-gui/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
   "bundle": {
     "active": true,
     "targets": ["app", "appimage", "deb", "msi", "nsis", "rpm"],
+    "externalBin": ["binaries/installer-cli"],
     "icon": [
       "icons/32x32.png",
       "icons/128x128.png",