diff --git a/packages/cli/package.json b/packages/cli/package.json
index 539618f7..2f1c4313 100644
--- a/packages/cli/package.json
+++ b/packages/cli/package.json
@@ -26,7 +26,8 @@
   ],
   "scripts": {
     "assets:demo": "node scripts/build-demo-assets.mjs",
-    "build": "node -e \"fs.rmSync('dist', { recursive: true, force: true })\" && tsc -p tsconfig.json && node scripts/copy-runtime-assets.mjs && node ../../scripts/prepare-cli-bin.mjs",
+    "build": "tsc -p tsconfig.json && node scripts/copy-runtime-assets.mjs && node ../../scripts/prepare-cli-bin.mjs",
+    "clean": "node -e \"fs.rmSync('dist', { recursive: true, force: true }); fs.rmSync('node_modules/.cache/tsc.tsbuildinfo', { force: true })\"",
     "docs:commands": "pnpm run build && node dist/print-command-tree.js",
     "smoke": "vitest run src/standalone-smoke.test.ts src/example-smoke.test.ts --testTimeout 30000",
     "test": "vitest run --exclude src/standalone-smoke.test.ts --exclude src/example-smoke.test.ts --exclude src/setup-databases.test.ts --exclude src/scan.test.ts --exclude src/commands/connection-metabase-setup.test.ts --exclude src/setup-models.test.ts --exclude src/setup-sources.test.ts --exclude src/setup.test.ts --exclude src/connection.test.ts --exclude src/setup-embeddings.test.ts --exclude src/ingest.test.ts --exclude src/commands/connection-mapping.test.ts --exclude src/ingest-viz.test.ts --exclude src/demo.test.ts --exclude src/setup-project.test.ts --exclude src/sl.test.ts --exclude src/local-scan-connectors.test.ts --exclude src/commands/connection-notion.test.ts",
diff --git a/packages/cli/tsconfig.json b/packages/cli/tsconfig.json
index 40c250d6..b527c8a1 100644
--- a/packages/cli/tsconfig.json
+++ b/packages/cli/tsconfig.json
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
   "compilerOptions": {
     "outDir": "./dist",
     "rootDir": "./src",
-    "jsx": "react-jsx"
+    "jsx": "react-jsx",
+    "tsBuildInfoFile": "./node_modules/.cache/tsc.tsbuildinfo"
   },
   "include": ["src/**/*.ts", "src/**/*.tsx"],
   "exclude": ["dist", "node_modules"]
diff --git a/scripts/conductor-scripts.test.mjs b/scripts/conductor-scripts.test.mjs
index fa97a501..3284efae 100644
--- a/scripts/conductor-scripts.test.mjs
+++ b/scripts/conductor-scripts.test.mjs
@@ -27,9 +27,9 @@ describe('Conductor workspace scripts', () => {
     assert.match(setupScript, /uv sync --all-packages --all-groups/);
     assert.match(setupScript, /pnpm install --frozen-lockfile --prefer-offline/);
     assert.match(setupScript, /pnpm run native:rebuild/);
-    assert.match(setupScript, /pnpm run build/);
     assert.match(setupScript, /pnpm run artifacts:build/);
-    assert.match(setupScript, /packages\/cli\/dist\/bin\.js status --no-input/);
+    assert.match(setupScript, /packages\/cli\/dist\/bin\.js/);
+    assert.match(setupScript, /status --no-input/);
     assert.doesNotMatch(setupScript, /scripts\/conductor\//);
   });
 
diff --git a/scripts/conductor-setup.sh b/scripts/conductor-setup.sh
index 6f270508..8d64e7ad 100755
--- a/scripts/conductor-setup.sh
+++ b/scripts/conductor-setup.sh
@@ -133,13 +133,15 @@ pnpm install --frozen-lockfile --prefer-offline
 echo "Rebuilding native JS dependencies..."
 pnpm run native:rebuild
 
-echo "Building KTX packages..."
-pnpm run build
-
 echo "Building KTX runtime artifacts..."
+# Builds every internal package (llm/context/connectors/cli) before producing
+# the wheel + npm tarball, so a separate `pnpm run build` would be redundant.
 pnpm run artifacts:build
 
 echo "Running KTX setup doctor..."
-node packages/cli/dist/bin.js status --no-input
+# Run from a temp dir so `ktx status` doesn't walk up into a parent ktx.yaml
+# (e.g. ~/ktx.yaml) and report on an unrelated project.
+KTX_CLI_BIN="$PWD/packages/cli/dist/bin.js"
+( cd "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}" && node "$KTX_CLI_BIN" status --no-input )
 
 echo "=== Setup complete ==="
diff --git a/scripts/package-artifacts.mjs b/scripts/package-artifacts.mjs
index efe7f6f3..88654c55 100644
--- a/scripts/package-artifacts.mjs
+++ b/scripts/package-artifacts.mjs
@@ -41,12 +41,6 @@ export const NPM_ARTIFACT_PACKAGES = [{ name: PUBLIC_NPM_PACKAGE_NAME, packageRo
 
 export const CLI_PYTHON_ASSET_MANIFEST = 'manifest.json';
 
-const CONNECTOR_PACKAGE_NAMES = INTERNAL_NPM_WORKSPACE_PACKAGES
-  .map((packageInfo) => packageInfo.name)
-  .filter((packageName) => packageName.startsWith('@ktx/connector-'));
-
-const NPM_ARTIFACT_BUILD_ORDER = ['@ktx/llm', '@ktx/context', ...CONNECTOR_PACKAGE_NAMES, '@ktx/cli'];
-
 function scriptRootDir() {
   return resolve(dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '..');
 }
@@ -84,18 +78,19 @@ export function packageArtifactLayout(rootDir = scriptRootDir()) {
 }
 
 export function buildArtifactCommands(layout) {
-  const packagesByName = new Map(INTERNAL_NPM_WORKSPACE_PACKAGES.map((packageInfo) => [packageInfo.name, packageInfo]));
-  const npmBuildCommands = NPM_ARTIFACT_BUILD_ORDER.map((packageName) => {
-    const packageInfo = packagesByName.get(packageName);
-    if (!packageInfo) {
-      throw new Error(`Unknown npm artifact build package: ${packageName}`);
-    }
-    return {
-      command: 'pnpm',
-      args: ['--filter', packageInfo.name, 'run', 'build'],
-      cwd: layout.rootDir,
-    };
-  });
+  // One recursive pnpm invocation; topology comes from workspace deps in
+  // each package.json, parallelism from --workspace-concurrency.
+  const npmBuildCommand = {
+    command: 'pnpm',
+    args: [
+      '--filter',
+      './packages/*',
+      '--workspace-concurrency=10',
+      'run',
+      'build',
+    ],
+    cwd: layout.rootDir,
+  };
   const publicPackageCommand = {
     command: process.execPath,
     args: ['scripts/build-public-npm-package.mjs'],
@@ -103,7 +98,7 @@ export function buildArtifactCommands(layout) {
   };
 
   return [
-    ...npmBuildCommands,
+    npmBuildCommand,
     {
       command: process.execPath,
       args: ['scripts/build-python-runtime-wheel.mjs'],
@@ -929,21 +924,13 @@ async function buildArtifacts(layout) {
   await mkdir(layout.npmDir, { recursive: true });
   await mkdir(layout.pythonDir, { recursive: true });
 
-  const commands = buildArtifactCommands(layout);
-  const npmBuildCount = NPM_ARTIFACT_BUILD_ORDER.length;
-  const npmPackStart = commands.length - 1;
+  const [npmBuildCommand, wheelCommand, publicPackageCommand] = buildArtifactCommands(layout);
 
-  for (const command of commands.slice(0, npmBuildCount)) {
-    await runCommand(command.command, command.args, { cwd: command.cwd });
-  }
-  for (const command of commands.slice(npmBuildCount, npmPackStart)) {
-    await runCommand(command.command, command.args, { cwd: command.cwd });
-  }
+  await runCommand(npmBuildCommand.command, npmBuildCommand.args, { cwd: npmBuildCommand.cwd });
+  await runCommand(wheelCommand.command, wheelCommand.args, { cwd: wheelCommand.cwd });
   const pythonArtifacts = await findPythonArtifacts(layout.pythonDir);
   await copyRuntimeWheelAssets(layout, pythonArtifacts);
-  for (const command of commands.slice(npmPackStart)) {
-    await runCommand(command.command, command.args, { cwd: command.cwd });
-  }
+  await runCommand(publicPackageCommand.command, publicPackageCommand.args, { cwd: publicPackageCommand.cwd });
 
   for (const packageInfo of NPM_ARTIFACT_PACKAGES) {
     await assertPathExists(layout.npmTarballs[packageInfo.name], `${packageInfo.name} tarball`);
diff --git a/scripts/package-artifacts.test.mjs b/scripts/package-artifacts.test.mjs
index 1f0bf164..7b0fc948 100644
--- a/scripts/package-artifacts.test.mjs
+++ b/scripts/package-artifacts.test.mjs
@@ -31,12 +31,6 @@ async function writeJson(path, value) {
   await writeFile(path, `${JSON.stringify(value, null, 2)}\n`);
 }
 
-const INTERNAL_BUILD_PACKAGE_NAMES = INTERNAL_NPM_WORKSPACE_PACKAGES.map((packageInfo) => packageInfo.name);
-const CONNECTOR_PACKAGE_NAMES = INTERNAL_BUILD_PACKAGE_NAMES.filter((packageName) =>
-  packageName.startsWith('@ktx/connector-'),
-);
-const NPM_BUILD_PACKAGE_ORDER = ['@ktx/llm', '@ktx/context', ...CONNECTOR_PACKAGE_NAMES, '@ktx/cli'];
-
 async function writeReleaseMetadataInputs(root) {
   for (const packageInfo of INTERNAL_NPM_WORKSPACE_PACKAGES) {
     await mkdir(join(root, packageInfo.packageRoot), { recursive: true });
@@ -81,24 +75,17 @@ describe('packageArtifactLayout', () => {
 });
 
 describe('buildArtifactCommands', () => {
-  it('builds TypeScript packages and the runtime wheel before packing npm artifacts', () => {
+  it('builds TypeScript packages in parallel topology, then the runtime wheel, then packs npm artifacts', () => {
     const layout = packageArtifactLayout('/repo/ktx');
     const commands = buildArtifactCommands(layout);
 
     assert.deepEqual(
-      commands.slice(0, NPM_BUILD_PACKAGE_ORDER.length).map((command) => [command.command, command.args]),
-      NPM_BUILD_PACKAGE_ORDER.map((packageName) => ['pnpm', ['--filter', packageName, 'run', 'build']]),
-    );
-    assert.deepEqual(
-      commands.slice(NPM_BUILD_PACKAGE_ORDER.length, NPM_BUILD_PACKAGE_ORDER.length + 1).map((command) => [
-        command.command,
-        command.args,
-      ]),
-      [[process.execPath, ['scripts/build-python-runtime-wheel.mjs']]],
-    );
-    assert.deepEqual(
-      commands.slice(NPM_BUILD_PACKAGE_ORDER.length + 1).map((command) => [command.command, command.args]),
-      [[process.execPath, ['scripts/build-public-npm-package.mjs']]],
+      commands.map((command) => [command.command, command.args]),
+      [
+        ['pnpm', ['--filter', './packages/*', '--workspace-concurrency=10', 'run', 'build']],
+        [process.execPath, ['scripts/build-python-runtime-wheel.mjs']],
+        [process.execPath, ['scripts/build-public-npm-package.mjs']],
+      ],
     );
   });
 });
diff --git a/tsconfig.base.json b/tsconfig.base.json
index 1976d77e..df93e255 100644
--- a/tsconfig.base.json
+++ b/tsconfig.base.json
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
     "target": "ES2023",
     "lib": ["ES2023"],
     "declaration": true,
+    "incremental": true,
     "strict": true,
     "strictNullChecks": true,
     "esModuleInterop": true,