diff --git a/ark-cli/Cargo.toml b/ark-cli/Cargo.toml
index a60f5a1a..ea661d3d 100644
--- a/ark-cli/Cargo.toml
+++ b/ark-cli/Cargo.toml
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ lazy_static = "1.4.0"
 canonical-path = "2.0.2"
 
 
-fs-index = { path = "../fs-index" }
+fs-index = { path = "../fs-index", features = ["watch"] }
 fs-atomic-versions = { path = "../fs-atomic-versions" }
 fs-metadata = { path = "../fs-metadata" }
 fs-properties = { path = "../fs-properties" }
diff --git a/fs-index/Cargo.toml b/fs-index/Cargo.toml
index 1e1cea99..4057f8aa 100644
--- a/fs-index/Cargo.toml
+++ b/fs-index/Cargo.toml
@@ -15,11 +15,11 @@ anyhow = "1.0.58"
 serde_json = "1.0"
 serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
 # For the watch API
-notify = "6.1"
-notify-debouncer-full = "0.3"
-futures = "0.3"
-async-stream = "0.3"
-tokio = { version = "1.40", features = ["full"] }
+notify = { version = "6.1", optional = true }
+notify-debouncer-full = { version = "0.3", optional = true }
+futures = { version = "0.3", optional = true }
+async-stream = { version = "0.3", optional = true }
+tokio = { version = "1.40", features = ["full"], optional = true }
 
 
 fs-storage = { path = "../fs-storage" }
@@ -27,6 +27,10 @@ fs-storage = { path = "../fs-storage" }
 data-error = { path = "../data-error" }
 data-resource = { path = "../data-resource" }
 
+
+[features]
+watch = ["notify", "notify-debouncer-full", "futures", "async-stream", "tokio"]
+
 [dev-dependencies]
 uuid = { version = "1.6.1", features = ["v4"] }
 # benchmarking
diff --git a/fs-index/README.md b/fs-index/README.md
index 6d4cd680..427db943 100644
--- a/fs-index/README.md
+++ b/fs-index/README.md
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ The most important struct in this crate is `ResourceIndex` which comes with:
   - `get_resource_by_path`: Query a resource from the index by its path.
 - **Selective API**
   - `update_one`: Method to manually update a specific resource by selectively rescanning a single file.
-- **Watch API**
+- **Watch API** (Enable with `watch` feature)
   - `watch`: Method to watch a directory for changes and update the index accordingly.
 
 > **Note:** To see the watch API in action, run the `index_watch` example or check `ark-cli watch` command.
diff --git a/fs-index/src/lib.rs b/fs-index/src/lib.rs
index 231c6f0c..ab86fe00 100644
--- a/fs-index/src/lib.rs
+++ b/fs-index/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 mod index;
 mod serde;
 mod utils;
+#[cfg(feature = "watch")]
 mod watch;
 
 pub use index::{IndexUpdate, ResourceIndex};
 pub use utils::load_or_build_index;
+#[cfg(feature = "watch")]
 pub use watch::{watch_index, WatchEvent};
 
 #[cfg(test)]