diff --git a/barretenberg/cpp/CMakePresets.json b/barretenberg/cpp/CMakePresets.json
index 62b4f4851719..079ae573346d 100644
--- a/barretenberg/cpp/CMakePresets.json
+++ b/barretenberg/cpp/CMakePresets.json
@@ -488,7 +488,6 @@
       },
       "cacheVariables": {
         "CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME": "Linux",
-        "TARGET_ARCH": "skylake",
         "AVM_TRANSPILER_LIB": "${sourceDir}/../../avm-transpiler/target/x86_64-apple-darwin/release/libavm_transpiler.a"
       }
     },
@@ -502,7 +501,6 @@
       },
       "cacheVariables": {
         "CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME": "Linux",
-        "TARGET_ARCH": "generic",
         "AVM_TRANSPILER_LIB": "${sourceDir}/../../avm-transpiler/target/aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/libavm_transpiler.a"
       }
     },
@@ -551,7 +549,6 @@
       "cacheVariables": {
         "CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME": "Windows",
         "CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR": "x86_64",
-        "TARGET_ARCH": "skylake",
         "BB_LITE": "ON",
         "AVM_TRANSPILER_LIB": ""
       }
diff --git a/barretenberg/cpp/cmake/arch.cmake b/barretenberg/cpp/cmake/arch.cmake
index e1e7d0978fd7..c8158dfb8cc8 100644
--- a/barretenberg/cpp/cmake/arch.cmake
+++ b/barretenberg/cpp/cmake/arch.cmake
@@ -5,16 +5,9 @@ if(WASM)
     add_compile_options(-fno-exceptions -fno-slp-vectorize)
 endif()
 
-# Auto-detect TARGET_ARCH on x86_64 if not explicitly set (native builds only).
-# On ARM, we skip -march entirely — the zig wrappers use an explicit aarch64 target
-# to produce generic ARM64 code without CPU-specific extensions (e.g. SVE).
-# Skip auto-detection when cross-compiling — the toolchain (e.g. Zig -mcpu) handles
-# architecture targeting, and injecting -march here conflicts with it.
-if(NOT WASM AND NOT TARGET_ARCH AND NOT ARM AND NOT CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING)
-    set(TARGET_ARCH "skylake")
-endif()
-
-if(NOT WASM AND TARGET_ARCH)
-    message(STATUS "Target architecture: ${TARGET_ARCH}")
-    add_compile_options(-march=${TARGET_ARCH})
+# Target skylake on x86 for AVX2 etc. ARM is handled by the zig wrapper scripts
+# which use explicit aarch64 targets to produce generic ARM64 code without
+# CPU-specific extensions (e.g. SVE on Graviton) that would break on Apple Silicon.
+if(CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR MATCHES "x86_64")
+    add_compile_options(-march=skylake)
 endif()
diff --git a/barretenberg/cpp/scripts/zig-c++.sh b/barretenberg/cpp/scripts/zig-c++.sh
index 1afa0f82f8fa..9ec2e6fb76c7 100755
--- a/barretenberg/cpp/scripts/zig-c++.sh
+++ b/barretenberg/cpp/scripts/zig-c++.sh
@@ -1,14 +1,15 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # Wrapper for zig c++ that pins glibc 2.35 on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04+ compat)
 # and uses native target on macOS.
-# On ARM64 Linux, use an explicit aarch64 target instead of 'native' to produce
-# generic ARM64 code. This prevents CPU-specific instructions (e.g. SVE on Graviton)
-# from being emitted, ensuring binaries work across all ARM64 machines including
-# Apple Silicon in devcontainers.
+# Use explicit architecture targets instead of 'native' to prevent zig from
+# detecting host-specific CPU features (e.g. SVE on Graviton, AVX-512 on
+# Sapphire Rapids) that would produce binaries incompatible with other machines.
+# cmake's arch.cmake handles -march=skylake for x86; ARM gets baseline aarch64 (no SVE).
 if [[ "$(uname -s)" == "Linux" ]]; then
   case "$(uname -m)" in
     aarch64|arm64) exec zig c++ -target aarch64-linux-gnu.2.35 "$@" ;;
-    *)             exec zig c++ -target native-linux-gnu.2.35 "$@" ;;
+    x86_64|amd64)  exec zig c++ -target x86_64-linux-gnu.2.35 "$@" ;;
+    *)             echo "Error: unsupported architecture '$(uname -m)'" >&2; exit 1 ;;
   esac
 else
   exec zig c++ "$@"
diff --git a/barretenberg/cpp/scripts/zig-cc.sh b/barretenberg/cpp/scripts/zig-cc.sh
index 34dd6263c6ce..0ab0c0913557 100755
--- a/barretenberg/cpp/scripts/zig-cc.sh
+++ b/barretenberg/cpp/scripts/zig-cc.sh
@@ -1,14 +1,15 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # Wrapper for zig cc that pins glibc 2.35 on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04+ compat)
 # and uses native target on macOS.
-# On ARM64 Linux, use an explicit aarch64 target instead of 'native' to produce
-# generic ARM64 code. This prevents CPU-specific instructions (e.g. SVE on Graviton)
-# from being emitted, ensuring binaries work across all ARM64 machines including
-# Apple Silicon in devcontainers.
+# Use explicit architecture targets instead of 'native' to prevent zig from
+# detecting host-specific CPU features (e.g. SVE on Graviton, AVX-512 on
+# Sapphire Rapids) that would produce binaries incompatible with other machines.
+# cmake's arch.cmake handles -march=skylake for x86; ARM gets baseline aarch64 (no SVE).
 if [[ "$(uname -s)" == "Linux" ]]; then
   case "$(uname -m)" in
     aarch64|arm64) exec zig cc -target aarch64-linux-gnu.2.35 "$@" ;;
-    *)             exec zig cc -target native-linux-gnu.2.35 "$@" ;;
+    x86_64|amd64)  exec zig cc -target x86_64-linux-gnu.2.35 "$@" ;;
+    *)             echo "Error: unsupported architecture '$(uname -m)'" >&2; exit 1 ;;
   esac
 else
   exec zig cc "$@"