diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index bb202379..290a101e 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ LIB_C := h3.c h3_host.c h3_safetensors.c h3_weights.c h3_text_encoder.c \
 LIB_C += h3_video_vae.c h3_video_encoder.c h3_audio_vae.c h3_ffmpeg.c \
 	h3_terminal.c h3_vision_encoder.c h3_multimodal.c
 LIB_M := h3_metal.m h3_gpu.m h3_tokenizer.m
-LIB_OBJ := $(LIB_C:.c=.o) $(LIB_M:.m=.o)
+LIB_S := h3_shaders_embedded.S
+LIB_OBJ := $(LIB_C:.c=.o) $(LIB_M:.m=.o) $(LIB_S:.S=.o)
 CLI_OBJ := main.o h3_cli.o linenoise.o
 
 .PHONY: all test parity real-parity clean
@@ -193,6 +194,11 @@ real-parity: h3_real_prompt_test h3_real_dit_block_test
 %.o: %.m
 	$(CC) $(OBJCFLAGS) -I. -c $< -o $@
 
+%.o: %.S
+	$(CC) -c $< -o $@
+
+h3_shaders_embedded.o: h3_shaders.metal
+
 tests/%.o: tests/%.c
 	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -I. -c $< -o $@
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4750ac49..e8ba31c1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -26,6 +26,14 @@ mkdir -p outputs
 mapping all weights or generating media. Run `./h3 --help` for the complete CLI
 reference.
 
+The Metal shader source is embedded in the executable and compiled at runtime,
+so `h3` can be installed as a standalone binary:
+
+```sh
+mkdir -p "$HOME/bin"
+install -m 755 h3 "$HOME/bin/h3"
+```
+
 Without `-p`, the same binary starts an Iris-style interactive session:
 
 ```sh
diff --git a/h3_gpu.h b/h3_gpu.h
index 3a47cc35..5a4e323b 100644
--- a/h3_gpu.h
+++ b/h3_gpu.h
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ typedef struct {
     double gpu_seconds;
 } h3_gpu_stats;
 
+/* Pass NULL to compile the shader source embedded in the library. The default
+ * source filename also falls back to the embedded copy when it is absent. */
 h3_gpu *h3_gpu_create(const char *shader_source_path,
                       char *error, size_t error_size);
 void h3_gpu_free(h3_gpu *gpu);
diff --git a/h3_gpu.m b/h3_gpu.m
index c61d04c6..43ae29da 100644
--- a/h3_gpu.m
+++ b/h3_gpu.m
@@ -325,6 +325,17 @@ static int h3_gpu_dispatch_rows(H3GPU *gpu, NSString *name, uint32_t rows,
     return 1;
 }
 
+extern const unsigned char h3_shaders_embedded_start[];
+extern const unsigned char h3_shaders_embedded_end[];
+
+static NSString *h3_gpu_embedded_shader_source(void) {
+    size_t length = (size_t)(h3_shaders_embedded_end -
+                             h3_shaders_embedded_start);
+    return [[NSString alloc] initWithBytes:h3_shaders_embedded_start
+                                   length:length
+                                 encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
+}
+
 h3_gpu *h3_gpu_create(const char *shader_source_path,
                       char *error, size_t error_size) {
     @autoreleasepool {
@@ -350,13 +361,21 @@ static int h3_gpu_dispatch_rows(H3GPU *gpu, NSString *name, uint32_t rows,
                     "%.3f GiB\n", (double)gpu.device.currentAllocatedSize /
                     (1024.0 * 1024.0 * 1024.0));
         }
-        const char *source_path = shader_source_path ? shader_source_path :
-                                                       "h3_shaders.metal";
-        NSString *path = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:source_path];
         NSError *libraryError = nil;
-        NSString *source = [NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:path
-                                                     encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding
-                                                        error:&libraryError];
+        NSString *source = nil;
+        NSString *sourceName = @"embedded h3_shaders.metal";
+        if (shader_source_path) {
+            sourceName = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:shader_source_path];
+            source = [NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:sourceName
+                                                encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding
+                                                   error:&libraryError];
+        }
+        if (!source && (!shader_source_path ||
+                        !strcmp(shader_source_path, "h3_shaders.metal"))) {
+            source = h3_gpu_embedded_shader_source();
+            sourceName = @"embedded h3_shaders.metal";
+            libraryError = nil;
+        }
         if (source) {
             MTLCompileOptions *options = [[MTLCompileOptions alloc] init];
             options.mathMode = MTLMathModeSafe;
@@ -397,7 +416,8 @@ static int h3_gpu_dispatch_rows(H3GPU *gpu, NSString *name, uint32_t rows,
             if (error && error_size) {
                 const char *description = libraryError.localizedDescription.UTF8String;
                 snprintf(error, error_size, "cannot compile %s: %s",
-                         source_path, description ? description : "unknown error");
+                         sourceName.UTF8String,
+                         description ? description : "unknown error");
             }
             return NULL;
         }
diff --git a/h3_shaders_embedded.S b/h3_shaders_embedded.S
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6413d52f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/h3_shaders_embedded.S
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+.section __TEXT,__const
+.p2align 4
+
+.globl _h3_shaders_embedded_start
+_h3_shaders_embedded_start:
+.incbin "h3_shaders.metal"
+
+.globl _h3_shaders_embedded_end
+_h3_shaders_embedded_end:
diff --git a/tests/test_audio_gpu.c b/tests/test_audio_gpu.c
index f8e9db05..92c1b83e 100644
--- a/tests/test_audio_gpu.c
+++ b/tests/test_audio_gpu.c
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ static void activation_reference(float *output, const float *input,
 int main(void) {
     test_context test = {0};
     char error[512];
-    test.gpu = h3_gpu_create("h3_shaders.metal", error, sizeof(error));
+    test.gpu = h3_gpu_create(NULL, error, sizeof(error));
     if (!test.gpu) die(error);
 
     const float input_values[] = {0.2f, -0.3f, 0.5f, 0.1f,