diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 931b23ead8..61a42da9eb 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -5334,6 +5334,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "url",
  "walkdir",
  "zip",
+ "zstd",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 5e90901ab8..9f66dfc6ca 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -262,6 +262,9 @@ flate2 = "1"
 tar = "0.4"
 base64 = "0.22"
 zip = "2"
+# zstd for transparent decompression of the npm-shipped `*.a.zst` archives.
+# Statically vendored (no system libzstd dependency on the user's machine).
+zstd = "0.13"
 
 # Internal crates
 perry-parser = { path = "crates/perry-parser" }
diff --git a/crates/perry/Cargo.toml b/crates/perry/Cargo.toml
index 897b3f4fb2..9d95b5cce7 100644
--- a/crates/perry/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/perry/Cargo.toml
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ flate2.workspace = true
 tar.workspace = true
 base64.workspace = true
 zip.workspace = true
+zstd.workspace = true
 jsonwebtoken.workspace = true
 semver = "1.0"
 dotenvy = "0.15"
diff --git a/crates/perry/src/commands/compile.rs b/crates/perry/src/commands/compile.rs
index f503319387..67aa5180b1 100644
--- a/crates/perry/src/commands/compile.rs
+++ b/crates/perry/src/commands/compile.rs
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ mod bundle_ios;
 mod cjs_wrap;
 mod codegen_steps;
 mod collect_modules;
+mod compressed_libs;
 mod env_fold;
 mod harmonyos_shim;
 mod host_config;
diff --git a/crates/perry/src/commands/compile/compressed_libs.rs b/crates/perry/src/commands/compile/compressed_libs.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6ae48f10ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/perry/src/commands/compile/compressed_libs.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+//! Transparent decompression of bundled, compressed static archives.
+//!
+//! The per-platform npm packages (`@perryts/perry-linux-arm64`, …) ship their
+//! prebuilt static archives zstd-compressed (`libperry_runtime.a.zst`,
+//! `libperry_stdlib.a.zst`, …) rather than raw `.a`, so the published tarball
+//! stays under npm's registry upload limit. The uncompressed archives total
+//! ~750 MB per platform; npm rejects the raw upload with HTTP 413 (Payload Too
+//! Large). zstd brings the published package comfortably under the limit while
+//! keeping every feature — the archives still contain the full stdlib so
+//! out-of-tree `perry compile` can link any program.
+//!
+//! [`find_library_with_candidates`](super::library_search::find_library_with_candidates)
+//! calls [`decompressed_archive`] when a candidate `.a` is absent but a sibling
+//! `.a.zst` exists: the archive is decompressed once into a per-user cache and
+//! the cached `.a` is linked. The cache slot is keyed on the compressed file's
+//! size + mtime, so a new release lands in a fresh slot and a stale archive is
+//! never served. Decompression is a one-time cost per machine per release;
+//! later compiles reuse the cache. zstd is statically vendored into the perry
+//! binary, so this adds no system-library dependency on the user's machine.
+//!
+//! This path is purely additive: installs that ship raw `.a` (Homebrew, apt,
+//! in-tree dev builds) match a `.a` candidate first and never reach it.
+
+use std::fs;
+use std::io;
+use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
+
+use anyhow::{anyhow, Context, Result};
+
+/// Extension appended to a bundled archive to mark it zstd-compressed.
+const COMPRESSED_EXT: &str = "zst";
+
+/// `libperry_runtime.a` → `libperry_runtime.a.zst`.
+pub(super) fn compressed_sibling(path: &Path) -> PathBuf {
+    let mut name = path.as_os_str().to_owned();
+    name.push(".");
+    name.push(COMPRESSED_EXT);
+    PathBuf::from(name)
+}
+
+/// Decompress `compressed` (a `*.a.zst`) into the per-user cache and return the
+/// path to the decompressed archive, reusing an existing cache entry when one
+/// matches. `lib_name` is the canonical archive filename (e.g.
+/// `libperry_runtime.a`); it is preserved in the cache so both full-path and
+/// `-L<dir> -l<name>` link styles resolve the result.
+pub(super) fn decompressed_archive(compressed: &Path, lib_name: &str) -> Result<PathBuf> {
+    let meta =
+        fs::metadata(compressed).with_context(|| format!("stat {}", compressed.display()))?;
+    let mtime = meta
+        .modified()
+        .ok()
+        .and_then(|t| t.duration_since(std::time::UNIX_EPOCH).ok())
+        .map(|d| d.as_secs())
+        .unwrap_or(0);
+    // One slot per (size, mtime): a different release (different bytes) gets a
+    // distinct slot and can never shadow or be confused with a previous one.
+    let slot = cache_root()?.join(format!("{:x}-{:x}", meta.len(), mtime));
+    let out = slot.join(lib_name);
+    if fs::metadata(&out).map(|m| m.len() > 0).unwrap_or(false) {
+        return Ok(out);
+    }
+
+    fs::create_dir_all(&slot).with_context(|| format!("create cache dir {}", slot.display()))?;
+    eprintln!(
+        "  decompressing bundled {} (one-time; cached under {})",
+        lib_name,
+        slot.display()
+    );
+
+    // Decompress to a process-unique temp file, then atomically rename, so a
+    // concurrent compile never links a half-written archive.
+    let tmp = slot.join(format!(".{}.{}.tmp", lib_name, std::process::id()));
+    let result = (|| -> Result<()> {
+        let input =
+            fs::File::open(compressed).with_context(|| format!("open {}", compressed.display()))?;
+        // `Decoder::new` wraps the reader in its own `BufReader`.
+        let mut decoder = zstd::Decoder::new(input)
+            .with_context(|| format!("init zstd decoder for {}", compressed.display()))?;
+        let mut out_file =
+            fs::File::create(&tmp).with_context(|| format!("create {}", tmp.display()))?;
+        io::copy(&mut decoder, &mut out_file)
+            .with_context(|| format!("zstd-decompress {}", compressed.display()))?;
+        // Propagate fsync failures (disk full, I/O error) so a truncated temp
+        // file is cleaned up below rather than renamed into the cache.
+        out_file
+            .sync_all()
+            .with_context(|| format!("flush {}", tmp.display()))?;
+        Ok(())
+    })();
+    if let Err(e) = result {
+        let _ = fs::remove_file(&tmp);
+        return Err(e);
+    }
+
+    match fs::rename(&tmp, &out) {
+        Ok(()) => Ok(out),
+        Err(_) => {
+            // Lost a race with a sibling process (or a cross-device rename):
+            // use the finished archive if it now exists, else fail loudly.
+            let _ = fs::remove_file(&tmp);
+            if fs::metadata(&out).map(|m| m.len() > 0).unwrap_or(false) {
+                Ok(out)
+            } else {
+                Err(anyhow!("failed to finalize decompressed {}", out.display()))
+            }
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// Root directory for decompressed archives. Honors `PERRY_LIB_CACHE_DIR`,
+/// otherwise the platform cache dir, otherwise the system temp dir.
+fn cache_root() -> Result<PathBuf> {
+    if let Ok(dir) = std::env::var("PERRY_LIB_CACHE_DIR") {
+        if !dir.is_empty() {
+            return Ok(PathBuf::from(dir));
+        }
+    }
+    let base = dirs::cache_dir().unwrap_or_else(std::env::temp_dir);
+    Ok(base.join("perry").join("libs"))
+}
diff --git a/crates/perry/src/commands/compile/library_search.rs b/crates/perry/src/commands/compile/library_search.rs
index 4ae90fd4cb..4dfb952bd5 100644
--- a/crates/perry/src/commands/compile/library_search.rs
+++ b/crates/perry/src/commands/compile/library_search.rs
@@ -646,6 +646,25 @@ pub(super) fn find_library_with_candidates(
         if path.exists() {
             return Ok(path.clone());
         }
+        // npm per-platform packages ship `*.a.zst` (the raw archives exceed
+        // npm's tarball upload limit). When only the compressed sibling is
+        // present, decompress it once into a per-user cache and link that.
+        let compressed = super::compressed_libs::compressed_sibling(path);
+        if compressed.exists() {
+            let lib_name = path.file_name().and_then(|s| s.to_str()).unwrap_or(name);
+            match super::compressed_libs::decompressed_archive(&compressed, lib_name) {
+                Ok(decompressed) => return Ok(decompressed),
+                // A compressed archive is present but couldn't be expanded
+                // (corrupt download, out of disk, …). Surface the real cause
+                // loudly here — otherwise it's masked by the generic "library
+                // not found" error the caller raises after exhausting candidates.
+                Err(e) => eprintln!(
+                    "  error: failed to decompress {}: {:#}",
+                    compressed.display(),
+                    e
+                ),
+            }
+        }
     }
     Err(candidates)
 }
diff --git a/scripts/stage-npm.sh b/scripts/stage-npm.sh
index f7bd3a5dc7..76dc79c603 100755
--- a/scripts/stage-npm.sh
+++ b/scripts/stage-npm.sh
@@ -174,6 +174,28 @@ for entry in "${PLATFORMS[@]}"; do
     done
   fi
 
+  # Compress the static archives so the published npm tarball stays under
+  # npm's registry upload limit (the raw archives total ~750 MB per platform;
+  # npm rejects the upload with HTTP 413). The perry binary decompresses them
+  # transparently on first use into a per-user cache (see compressed_libs.rs).
+  # The binary in bin/ is left raw — it is exec'd directly. Set
+  # PERRY_NPM_NO_COMPRESS=1 for local staging where uncompressed libs are handy.
+  if [ "${PERRY_NPM_NO_COMPRESS:-0}" != "1" ] && [ -d "$pkg_dir/lib" ]; then
+    if ! command -v zstd >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+      echo "  error: zstd not found but archive compression is required" >&2
+      echo "         install zstd or set PERRY_NPM_NO_COMPRESS=1" >&2
+      exit 1
+    fi
+    for f in "$pkg_dir"/lib/*; do
+      [ -f "$f" ] || continue
+      case "$f" in
+        *.zst) continue ;;
+      esac
+      zstd -19 -T0 -q -f --rm "$f"
+      echo "  compressed $(basename "$f") -> $(basename "$f").zst"
+    done
+  fi
+
   render_template "$pkg_dir/package.json.tmpl" "$pkg_dir/package.json"
   if [ -f "$LICENSE_SRC" ]; then
     cp "$LICENSE_SRC" "$pkg_dir/LICENSE"