diff --git a/src/App.zig b/src/App.zig
index a09860a86..785617721 100644
--- a/src/App.zig
+++ b/src/App.zig
@@ -41,10 +41,6 @@ mailbox: Mailbox.Queue,
 /// Set to true once we're quitting. This never goes false again.
 quit: bool,
 
-/// The app resources directory, equivalent to zig-out/share when we build
-/// from source. This is null if we can't detect it.
-resources_dir: ?[]const u8 = null,
-
 /// Font discovery mechanism. This is only safe to use from the main thread.
 /// This is lazily initialized on the first call to fontDiscover so do
 /// not access this directly.
@@ -59,17 +55,11 @@ pub fn create(
     var app = try alloc.create(App);
     errdefer alloc.destroy(app);
 
-    // Find our resources directory once for the app so every launch
-    // hereafter can use this cached value.
-    const resources_dir = try internal_os.resourcesDir(alloc);
-    errdefer if (resources_dir) |dir| alloc.free(dir);
-
     app.* = .{
         .alloc = alloc,
         .surfaces = .{},
         .mailbox = .{},
         .quit = false,
-        .resources_dir = resources_dir,
     };
     errdefer app.surfaces.deinit(alloc);
 
@@ -81,7 +71,6 @@ pub fn destroy(self: *App) void {
     for (self.surfaces.items) |surface| surface.deinit();
     self.surfaces.deinit(self.alloc);
 
-    if (self.resources_dir) |dir| self.alloc.free(dir);
     if (comptime font.Discover != void) {
         if (self.font_discover) |*v| v.deinit();
     }
diff --git a/src/Surface.zig b/src/Surface.zig
index 308e6e878..988be39e8 100644
--- a/src/Surface.zig
+++ b/src/Surface.zig
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ const assert = std.debug.assert;
 const Allocator = std.mem.Allocator;
 const ArenaAllocator = std.heap.ArenaAllocator;
 const ziglyph = @import("ziglyph");
+const main = @import("main.zig");
 const renderer = @import("renderer.zig");
 const termio = @import("termio.zig");
 const objc = @import("objc");
@@ -445,7 +446,7 @@ pub fn init(
         .padding = padding,
         .full_config = config,
         .config = try termio.Impl.DerivedConfig.init(alloc, config),
-        .resources_dir = app.resources_dir,
+        .resources_dir = main.state.resources_dir,
         .renderer_state = &self.renderer_state,
         .renderer_wakeup = render_thread.wakeup,
         .renderer_mailbox = render_thread.mailbox,
diff --git a/src/main.zig b/src/main.zig
index 3ef42d136..6d8ac9ad0 100644
--- a/src/main.zig
+++ b/src/main.zig
@@ -175,6 +175,10 @@ pub const GlobalState = struct {
     action: ?cli.Action,
     logging: Logging,
 
+    /// The app resources directory, equivalent to zig-out/share when we build
+    /// from source. This is null if we can't detect it.
+    resources_dir: ?[]const u8,
+
     /// Where logging should go
     pub const Logging = union(enum) {
         disabled: void,
@@ -192,6 +196,7 @@ pub const GlobalState = struct {
             .tracy = undefined,
             .action = null,
             .logging = .{ .stderr = {} },
+            .resources_dir = null,
         };
         errdefer self.deinit();
 
@@ -271,11 +276,18 @@ pub const GlobalState = struct {
 
         // Initialize glslang for shader compilation
         try glslang.init();
+
+        // Find our resources directory once for the app so every launch
+        // hereafter can use this cached value.
+        self.resources_dir = try internal_os.resourcesDir(self.alloc);
+        errdefer if (self.resources_dir) |dir| self.alloc.free(dir);
     }
 
     /// Cleans up the global state. This doesn't _need_ to be called but
     /// doing so in dev modes will check for memory leaks.
     pub fn deinit(self: *GlobalState) void {
+        if (self.resources_dir) |dir| self.alloc.free(dir);
+
         if (self.gpa) |*value| {
             // We want to ensure that we deinit the GPA because this is
             // the point at which it will output if there were safety violations.