diff --git a/.gitpod.yml b/.gitpod.yml
index 600c1a8c8a..1b0aec7735 100644
--- a/.gitpod.yml
+++ b/.gitpod.yml
@@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ vscode:
     - leanprover.lean4
 
 tasks:
-  - name: Release build
-    init: cmake --preset release
+  - name: Build
+    init: cmake --preset dev
     command: make -C build/release -j$(nproc || sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
diff --git a/CMakePresets.json b/CMakePresets.json
index f354144c15..9b140c9e1f 100644
--- a/CMakePresets.json
+++ b/CMakePresets.json
@@ -8,16 +8,26 @@
   "configurePresets": [
     {
       "name": "release",
-      "displayName": "Default development optimized build config",
+      "displayName": "Release build config",
       "generator": "Unix Makefiles",
       "binaryDir": "${sourceDir}/build/release"
     },
+    {
+      "name": "dev",
+      "displayName": "Default development optimized build config",
+      "cacheVariables": {
+        "STRIP_BINARIES": "OFF"
+      },
+      "generator": "Unix Makefiles",
+      "binaryDir": "${sourceDir}/build/dev"
+    },
     {
       "name": "debug",
       "displayName": "Debug build config",
       "cacheVariables": {
+        "CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE": "Debug",
         "LEAN_EXTRA_CXX_FLAGS": "-DLEAN_DEFAULT_THREAD_STACK_SIZE=16*1024*1024",
-        "CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE": "Debug"
+        "STRIP_BINARIES": "OFF"
       },
       "generator": "Unix Makefiles",
       "binaryDir": "${sourceDir}/build/debug"
@@ -26,7 +36,8 @@
       "name": "reldebug",
       "displayName": "Release with assertions enabled",
       "cacheVariables": {
-        "CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE": "RelWithAssert"
+        "CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE": "RelWithAssert",
+        "STRIP_BINARIES": "OFF"
       },
       "generator": "Unix Makefiles",
       "binaryDir": "${sourceDir}/build/reldebug"
@@ -38,6 +49,7 @@
         "LEAN_EXTRA_CXX_FLAGS": "-fsanitize=address,undefined -DLEAN_DEFAULT_THREAD_STACK_SIZE=16*1024*1024",
         "LEANC_EXTRA_CC_FLAGS": "-fsanitize=address,undefined",
         "LEAN_EXTRA_LINKER_FLAGS": "-fsanitize=address,undefined -fsanitize-link-c++-runtime",
+        "STRIP_BINARIES": "OFF",
         "SMALL_ALLOCATOR": "OFF",
         "USE_MIMALLOC": "OFF",
         "BSYMBOLIC": "OFF",
@@ -58,6 +70,10 @@
       "name": "release",
       "configurePreset": "release"
     },
+    {
+      "name": "dev",
+      "configurePreset": "dev"
+    },
     {
       "name": "debug",
       "configurePreset": "debug"
@@ -81,6 +97,11 @@
       "configurePreset": "release",
       "output": {"outputOnFailure": true, "shortProgress": true}
     },
+    {
+      "name": "dev",
+      "configurePreset": "dev",
+      "output": {"outputOnFailure": true, "shortProgress": true}
+    },
     {
       "name": "debug",
       "configurePreset": "debug",
diff --git a/doc/make/index.md b/doc/make/index.md
index 7dd4f5dbd1..14e05e35f3 100644
--- a/doc/make/index.md
+++ b/doc/make/index.md
@@ -30,6 +30,9 @@ cd lean4
 cmake --preset release
 make -C build/release -j$(nproc || sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
 ```
+
+For development, `cmake --preset dev` is recommended instead.
+
 You can replace `$(nproc || sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)` with the desired parallelism amount.
 
 The above commands will compile the Lean library and binaries into the
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index dd9824bae7..c481e004fb 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ option(CCACHE "use ccache" ON)
 option(SPLIT_STACK "SPLIT_STACK" OFF)
 # When OFF we disable LLVM support
 option(LLVM "LLVM" OFF)
+option(STRIP_BINARIES "Strip produced binaries" ON)
 
 # When ON we include githash in the version string
 option(USE_GITHASH "GIT_HASH" ON)
diff --git a/src/stdlib.make.in b/src/stdlib.make.in
index b399c745cf..40904462ad 100644
--- a/src/stdlib.make.in
+++ b/src/stdlib.make.in
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ else
 	  -Wl,--whole-archive ${LIB}/temp/Lean.*o.export ${LIB}/temp/libleanshell.a -Wl,--no-whole-archive -Wl,--start-group -lInit -lStd -lLean -lleancpp -Wl,--end-group ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/runtime/libleanrt_initial-exec.a ${LEANSHARED_LINKER_FLAGS} ${TOOLCHAIN_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS} ${LEANC_OPTS}
 endif
 endif
-ifeq "${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}" "Release"
+ifeq "${STRIP_BINARIES}" "ON"
 ifeq "${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME}" "Linux"
 # We only strip like this on Linux for now as our other platforms already seem to exclude the
 # unexported symbols by default