diff --git a/src/tools/rust-analyzer/.github/workflows/release.yaml b/src/tools/rust-analyzer/.github/workflows/release.yaml
index 3687c84bea5c..9ab4a0b9d255 100644
--- a/src/tools/rust-analyzer/.github/workflows/release.yaml
+++ b/src/tools/rust-analyzer/.github/workflows/release.yaml
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@ env:
   RUSTUP_MAX_RETRIES: 10
   FETCH_DEPTH: 0 # pull in the tags for the version string
   MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET: 13.0
-  CARGO_TARGET_AARCH64_UNKNOWN_LINUX_GNU_LINKER: aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc
-  CARGO_TARGET_ARM_UNKNOWN_LINUX_GNUEABIHF_LINKER: arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc
+  ZIG_VERSION: 0.13.0
+  ZIGBUILD_VERSION: 0.19.8
 
 jobs:
   dist:
@@ -36,13 +36,15 @@ jobs:
             code-target: win32-arm64
           - os: ubuntu-latest
             target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
+            zig_target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.2.28
             code-target: linux-x64
-            container: rockylinux:8
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
+          - os: ubuntu-latest
             target: aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
+            zig_target: aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.2.28
             code-target: linux-arm64
-          - os: ubuntu-22.04
+          - os: ubuntu-latest
             target: arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf
+            zig_target: arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf.2.28
             code-target: linux-armhf
           - os: macos-13
             target: x86_64-apple-darwin
@@ -64,40 +66,33 @@ jobs:
         with:
           fetch-depth: ${{ env.FETCH_DEPTH }}
 
-      - name: Install toolchain dependencies
-        if: matrix.container == 'rockylinux:8'
-        shell: bash
-        run: |
-          dnf install -y gcc
-          curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 --retry 10 --retry-connrefused -fsSL "https://sh.rustup.rs" | sh -s -- --profile minimal --default-toolchain none -y
-          echo "${CARGO_HOME:-$HOME/.cargo}/bin" >> $GITHUB_PATH
+      - name: Install Node.js toolchain
+        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
+        with:
+          node-version: 20
 
       - name: Install Rust toolchain
         run: |
           rustup update --no-self-update stable
-          rustup target add ${{ matrix.target }}
           rustup component add rust-src
+          rustup target add ${{ matrix.target }}
 
-      - name: Install Node.js
-        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
-        with:
-          node-version: 18
+      - name: Install Zig toolchain
+        if: ${{ matrix.zig_target }}
+        run: |
+          which cargo
+          curl -L "https://ziglang.org/download/${ZIG_VERSION}/zig-linux-$(uname -m)-${ZIG_VERSION}.tar.xz" | sudo tar JxC /usr/local
+          sudo ln -s "/usr/local/zig-linux-$(uname -m)-${ZIG_VERSION}/zig" /usr/local/bin/zig
+          curl -L "https://github.com/rust-cross/cargo-zigbuild/releases/download/v${ZIGBUILD_VERSION}/cargo-zigbuild-v${ZIGBUILD_VERSION}.x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz" | tar zxC ~/.cargo/bin
 
-      - name: Update apt repositories
-        if: matrix.target == 'aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu' || matrix.target == 'arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf'
-        run: sudo apt-get update
-
-      - name: Install AArch64 target toolchain
-        if: matrix.target == 'aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu'
-        run: sudo apt-get install gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu
-
-      - name: Install ARM target toolchain
-        if: matrix.target == 'arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf'
-        run: sudo apt-get install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf
-
-      - name: Dist
+      - name: Dist (plain)
+        if: ${{ !matrix.zig_target }}
         run: cargo xtask dist --client-patch-version ${{ github.run_number }}
 
+      - name: Dist (using zigbuild)
+        if: ${{ matrix.zig_target }}
+        run: RA_TARGET=${{ matrix.zig_target}} cargo xtask dist --client-patch-version ${{ github.run_number }} --zig
+
       - run: npm ci
         working-directory: editors/code
 
diff --git a/src/tools/rust-analyzer/xtask/src/dist.rs b/src/tools/rust-analyzer/xtask/src/dist.rs
index c6a0be8aeb99..99483f4a5dc2 100644
--- a/src/tools/rust-analyzer/xtask/src/dist.rs
+++ b/src/tools/rust-analyzer/xtask/src/dist.rs
@@ -38,11 +38,11 @@ impl flags::Dist {
                 // A hack to make VS Code prefer nightly over stable.
                 format!("{VERSION_NIGHTLY}.{patch_version}")
             };
-            dist_server(sh, &format!("{version}-standalone"), &target, allocator)?;
+            dist_server(sh, &format!("{version}-standalone"), &target, allocator, self.zig)?;
             let release_tag = if stable { date_iso(sh)? } else { "nightly".to_owned() };
             dist_client(sh, &version, &release_tag, &target)?;
         } else {
-            dist_server(sh, "0.0.0-standalone", &target, allocator)?;
+            dist_server(sh, "0.0.0-standalone", &target, allocator, self.zig)?;
         }
         Ok(())
     }
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ fn dist_server(
     release: &str,
     target: &Target,
     allocator: Malloc,
+    zig: bool,
 ) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     let _e = sh.push_env("CFG_RELEASE", release);
     let _e = sh.push_env("CARGO_PROFILE_RELEASE_LTO", "thin");
@@ -92,13 +93,14 @@ fn dist_server(
     //   * on Linux, this blows up the binary size from 8MB to 43MB, which is unreasonable.
     // let _e = sh.push_env("CARGO_PROFILE_RELEASE_DEBUG", "1");
 
-    if target.name.contains("-linux-") {
-        env::set_var("CC", "clang");
-    }
-
-    let target_name = &target.name;
+    let linux_target = target.is_linux();
+    let target_name = match &target.libc_suffix {
+        Some(libc_suffix) if zig => format!("{}.{libc_suffix}", target.name),
+        _ => target.name.to_owned(),
+    };
     let features = allocator.to_features();
-    cmd!(sh, "cargo build --manifest-path ./crates/rust-analyzer/Cargo.toml --bin rust-analyzer --target {target_name} {features...} --release").run()?;
+    let command = if linux_target && zig { "zigbuild" } else { "build" };
+    cmd!(sh, "cargo {command} --manifest-path ./crates/rust-analyzer/Cargo.toml --bin rust-analyzer --target {target_name} {features...} --release").run()?;
 
     let dst = Path::new("dist").join(&target.artifact_name);
     if target_name.contains("-windows-") {
@@ -156,6 +158,7 @@ fn zip(src_path: &Path, symbols_path: Option<&PathBuf>, dest_path: &Path) -> any
 
 struct Target {
     name: String,
+    libc_suffix: Option<String>,
     server_path: PathBuf,
     symbols_path: Option<PathBuf>,
     artifact_name: String,
@@ -177,6 +180,10 @@ impl Target {
                 }
             }
         };
+        let (name, libc_suffix) = match name.split_once('.') {
+            Some((l, r)) => (l.to_owned(), Some(r.to_owned())),
+            None => (name, None),
+        };
         let out_path = project_root.join("target").join(&name).join("release");
         let (exe_suffix, symbols_path) = if name.contains("-windows-") {
             (".exe".into(), Some(out_path.join("rust_analyzer.pdb")))
@@ -185,7 +192,11 @@ impl Target {
         };
         let server_path = out_path.join(format!("rust-analyzer{exe_suffix}"));
         let artifact_name = format!("rust-analyzer-{name}{exe_suffix}");
-        Self { name, server_path, symbols_path, artifact_name }
+        Self { name, libc_suffix, server_path, symbols_path, artifact_name }
+    }
+
+    fn is_linux(&self) -> bool {
+        self.name.contains("-linux-")
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/tools/rust-analyzer/xtask/src/flags.rs b/src/tools/rust-analyzer/xtask/src/flags.rs
index ebb9e71a4f46..d03e2f8437ec 100644
--- a/src/tools/rust-analyzer/xtask/src/flags.rs
+++ b/src/tools/rust-analyzer/xtask/src/flags.rs
@@ -57,6 +57,8 @@ xflags::xflags! {
             /// Use jemalloc allocator for server
             optional --jemalloc
             optional --client-patch-version version: String
+            /// Use cargo-zigbuild
+            optional --zig
         }
         /// Read a changelog AsciiDoc file and update the GitHub Releases entry in Markdown.
         cmd publish-release-notes {
@@ -144,6 +146,7 @@ pub struct Dist {
     pub mimalloc: bool,
     pub jemalloc: bool,
     pub client_patch_version: Option<String>,
+    pub zig: bool,
 }
 
 #[derive(Debug)]
diff --git a/src/tools/rust-analyzer/xtask/src/release.rs b/src/tools/rust-analyzer/xtask/src/release.rs
index 8e56ce439c55..9f65c4029536 100644
--- a/src/tools/rust-analyzer/xtask/src/release.rs
+++ b/src/tools/rust-analyzer/xtask/src/release.rs
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ impl flags::Release {
             .unwrap_or_default();
 
         let tags = cmd!(sh, "git tag --list").read()?;
-        let prev_tag = tags.lines().filter(|line| is_release_tag(line)).last().unwrap();
+        let prev_tag = tags.lines().filter(|line| is_release_tag(line)).next_back().unwrap();
 
         let contents = changelog::get_changelog(sh, changelog_n, &commit, prev_tag, &today)?;
         let path = changelog_dir.join(format!("{today}-changelog-{changelog_n}.adoc"));