diff --git a/src/os/resourcesdir.zig b/src/os/resourcesdir.zig
index 4ef256c1a..ae7c33bc3 100644
--- a/src/os/resourcesdir.zig
+++ b/src/os/resourcesdir.zig
@@ -9,14 +9,22 @@ const Allocator = std.mem.Allocator;
 /// This is highly Ghostty-specific and can likely be generalized at
 /// some point but we can cross that bridge if we ever need to.
 pub fn resourcesDir(alloc: std.mem.Allocator) !?[]const u8 {
-    // If we have an environment variable set, we always use that.
+    // Use the GHOSTTY_RESOURCES_DIR environment variable in release builds.
+    //
+    // In debug builds we try using terminfo detection first instead, since
+    // if debug Ghostty is launched by an older version of Ghostty, it
+    // would inherit the old, stale resources of older Ghostty instead of the
+    // freshly built ones under zig-out/share/ghostty.
+    //
     // Note: we ALWAYS want to allocate here because the result is always
     // freed, do not try to use internal_os.getenv or posix getenv.
-    if (std.process.getEnvVarOwned(alloc, "GHOSTTY_RESOURCES_DIR")) |dir| {
-        if (dir.len > 0) return dir;
-    } else |err| switch (err) {
-        error.EnvironmentVariableNotFound => {},
-        else => return err,
+    if (comptime builtin.mode != .Debug) {
+        if (std.process.getEnvVarOwned(alloc, "GHOSTTY_RESOURCES_DIR")) |dir| {
+            if (dir.len > 0) return dir;
+        } else |err| switch (err) {
+            error.EnvironmentVariableNotFound => {},
+            else => return err,
+        }
     }
 
     // This is the sentinel value we look for in the path to know
@@ -52,6 +60,17 @@ pub fn resourcesDir(alloc: std.mem.Allocator) !?[]const u8 {
         }
     }
 
+    // If terminfo detection failed in debug builds (somehow),
+    // fallback and use the provided resources dir.
+    if (comptime builtin.mode == .Debug) {
+        if (std.process.getEnvVarOwned(alloc, "GHOSTTY_RESOURCES_DIR")) |dir| {
+            if (dir.len > 0) return dir;
+        } else |err| switch (err) {
+            error.EnvironmentVariableNotFound => {},
+            else => return err,
+        }
+    }
+
     return null;
 }