diff --git a/apps/desktop/electron-builder.yml b/apps/desktop/electron-builder.yml
index 90952eba7..798c4580c 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/electron-builder.yml
+++ b/apps/desktop/electron-builder.yml
@@ -8,6 +8,20 @@ files:
   - "!electron.vite.config.*"
   - "!{.eslintignore,.eslintrc.cjs,.prettierignore,.prettierrc.yaml,dev-app-update.yml,CHANGELOG.md,README.md}"
   - "!{tsconfig.json,tsconfig.node.json,tsconfig.web.json}"
+  # Never repack the electron-builder output directory into the app.
+  # Multi-arch release builds (scripts/package.mjs) run each target in the
+  # same apps/desktop dir with per-arch output at dist/<platform>-<arch>.
+  # electron-builder only auto-excludes the *current* target's output dir,
+  # so the earlier arch's dist/ (its full .app + DMG + ZIP) would otherwise
+  # be pulled into the next arch's app.asar. That inflated v0.4.3/v0.4.4's
+  # Intel (x64) DMG until the HFS volume was full and the real
+  # `Electron Framework/Versions/A/Electron Framework` binary was dropped,
+  # so Intel Macs crashed on launch with a dyld missing-library error
+  # (github.com/multica-ai/multica/issues/5595). Excluding all of dist/**
+  # fixes it regardless of build order; a pre-build clean alone does not,
+  # because the first arch writes into dist/ mid-run before the second is
+  # packaged.
+  - "!dist/**"
 protocols:
   - name: Multica
     schemes:
diff --git a/apps/desktop/scripts/package.mjs b/apps/desktop/scripts/package.mjs
index d68dfd5a9..babd82380 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/scripts/package.mjs
+++ b/apps/desktop/scripts/package.mjs
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 // real `git describe` invocation against a throwaway repo.
 
 import { execFileSync, spawnSync } from "node:child_process";
+import { rmSync } from "node:fs";
 import { delimiter, dirname, resolve } from "node:path";
 import { fileURLToPath, pathToFileURL } from "node:url";
 
@@ -365,6 +366,17 @@ function main() {
     `[package] build matrix → ${buildMatrix.map(formatTarget).join(", ")}`,
   );
 
+  // Step 0: start every release from an empty output directory. Stale
+  // artifacts from a prior run would otherwise be repacked into this run's
+  // app.asar (see the `!dist/**` note in electron-builder.yml). This clean
+  // is belt-and-braces only — it does NOT by itself prevent the same-run
+  // cross-arch contamination that broke the Intel DMG, because the first
+  // arch writes into dist/ mid-run before the next arch is packaged; the
+  // `!dist/**` files exclusion is what actually guarantees isolation.
+  const distDir = resolve(desktopRoot, "dist");
+  rmSync(distDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  console.log(`[package] cleaned output dir → ${distDir}`);
+
   // Step 1: build the Electron main/preload/renderer bundles. Without
   // this step electron-builder silently packages whatever is already in
   // out/, which on a fresh checkout (or after a partial build) ships an
diff --git a/apps/desktop/scripts/package.test.mjs b/apps/desktop/scripts/package.test.mjs
index 3d3f5b564..5105c2895 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/scripts/package.test.mjs
+++ b/apps/desktop/scripts/package.test.mjs
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { execFileSync } from "node:child_process";
-import { mkdtempSync, rmSync } from "node:fs";
+import { existsSync, mkdtempSync, readFileSync, rmSync } from "node:fs";
 import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
 import { delimiter, join, resolve } from "node:path";
 import { afterEach, describe, it, expect } from "vitest";
@@ -431,3 +431,49 @@ describe("envWithLocalBins", () => {
     ]);
   });
 });
+
+describe("electron-builder.yml packaging config", () => {
+  // Regression guard for github.com/multica-ai/multica/issues/5595. The
+  // multi-arch release build writes each target's output to
+  // dist/<platform>-<arch> in the same apps/desktop dir; electron-builder
+  // only auto-excludes the *current* target's output dir, so without an
+  // explicit `!dist/**` the earlier arch's dist/ was repacked into the next
+  // arch's app.asar. That inflated the Intel (x64) DMG until its Electron
+  // Framework binary was dropped and Intel Macs crashed on launch. Keep the
+  // exclusion pinned so a future edit to the files list cannot drop it
+  // unnoticed.
+  // Resolve electron-builder.yml relative to cwd, tolerating vitest running
+  // from either the desktop package dir or the repo root — import.meta.url is
+  // not a file:// URL under the test transform, so avoid fileURLToPath here.
+  const configPath = [
+    resolve(process.cwd(), "electron-builder.yml"),
+    resolve(process.cwd(), "apps/desktop/electron-builder.yml"),
+  ].find((candidate) => existsSync(candidate));
+
+  // Extract the entries of the top-level `files:` block sequence without a
+  // YAML dependency: collect the `  - "…"` items that follow `files:` up to
+  // the next top-level key. Commented (`#`) lines are ignored, so a
+  // commented-out exclusion would (correctly) not count.
+  function readFilesBlock(raw) {
+    const lines = raw.split("\n");
+    const start = lines.findIndex((l) => /^files:\s*$/.test(l));
+    if (start === -1) return [];
+    const entries = [];
+    for (let i = start + 1; i < lines.length; i += 1) {
+      const line = lines[i];
+      if (/^\S/.test(line)) break; // next top-level key ends the block
+      const trimmed = line.trim();
+      if (trimmed === "" || trimmed.startsWith("#")) continue;
+      const m = trimmed.match(/^-\s*"?(.*?)"?\s*$/);
+      if (m) entries.push(m[1]);
+    }
+    return entries;
+  }
+
+  it("excludes the dist output directory from the packaged files", () => {
+    expect(configPath, "electron-builder.yml not found").toBeTruthy();
+    const entries = readFilesBlock(readFileSync(configPath, "utf-8"));
+    expect(entries.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+    expect(entries).toContain("!dist/**");
+  });
+});