diff --git a/cranelift/Cargo.toml b/cranelift/Cargo.toml
index c576d3990e..45b39ef0a3 100644
--- a/cranelift/Cargo.toml
+++ b/cranelift/Cargo.toml
@@ -27,3 +27,11 @@ tempdir="0.3.5"
 term = "0.4.6"
 
 [workspace]
+
+# Enable debug assertions and parallel compilation when building cretonne-tools
+# since they are for testing and development mostly. This doesn't affect the
+# flags used to build the Cretonne crate when used as a dependency.
+[profile.release]
+opt-level = 2
+debug-assertions = true
+codegen-units = 4