diff --git a/.github/workflows/github-actions-macos-bazel.yml b/.github/workflows/github-actions-macos-bazel.yml
index 926ab3a7c15..7829c1d6f51 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/github-actions-macos-bazel.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/github-actions-macos-bazel.yml
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ jobs:
           bazelisk build \
             --disk_cache=~/.cache/bazel-disk-cache \
             --experimental_disk_cache_gc_max_size=5G \
-            --//:platform=gui //:openroad
+            //:openroad
 
       # 2. SAVE: Only executes if this is a push/merge directly to the master branch
       - name: Save Bazel Disk Cache
diff --git a/BUILD.bazel b/BUILD.bazel
index 7322e6027bb..cafcdc6da68 100644
--- a/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/BUILD.bazel
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ exports_files([
 
 string_flag(
     name = "platform",
-    build_setting_default = "cli",
+    build_setting_default = "gui",
     values = [
         "cli",
         "gui",
diff --git a/MODULE.bazel b/MODULE.bazel
index 939e5db8a9b..32e3529f443 100644
--- a/MODULE.bazel
+++ b/MODULE.bazel
@@ -80,6 +80,21 @@ bazel_dep(name = "qt-bazel")
 git_override(
     module_name = "qt-bazel",
     commit = "886104974c2fd72439f2c33b5deebf0fe4649df7",
+    # Build xcb-util-cursor from source so the Qt xcb platform plugin
+    # doesn't depend on the host having libxcb-cursor0 installed.
+    # qt-bazel upstream ships it as system_provided = True; we replace
+    # that with a static cc_library compiled from xcb-util-cursor 0.1.5.
+    patch_cmds = [
+        # Retry + --fail so transient xorg.freedesktop.org hiccups don't
+        # feed a truncated/HTML response into tar (seen in CI as "xz:
+        # File format not recognized"). Stage to a file first for a
+        # clearer error if extraction fails.
+        "curl -sSfL --retry 5 --retry-all-errors --retry-delay 5 -o xcb-util-cursor-0.1.5.tar.xz https://xorg.freedesktop.org/archive/individual/lib/xcb-util-cursor-0.1.5.tar.xz && tar xJf xcb-util-cursor-0.1.5.tar.xz --strip-components=1 -C interface_libs/xcb xcb-util-cursor-0.1.5/cursor && rm xcb-util-cursor-0.1.5.tar.xz",
+    ],
+    patch_strip = 1,
+    patches = [
+        "//bazel:qt-bazel-xcb-cursor-from-source.patch",
+    ],
     remote = "https://github.com/The-OpenROAD-Project/qt_bazel_prebuilts",
 )
 
diff --git a/bazel/Dockerfile b/bazel/Dockerfile
index bbe40e2840c..efa4f460e79 100644
--- a/bazel/Dockerfile
+++ b/bazel/Dockerfile
@@ -25,6 +25,20 @@ RUN apt-get -y update \
       docker-buildx-plugin \
       docker-ce \
       docker-ce-cli \
+      libdbus-1-3 \
+      libfontconfig1 \
+      libsm6 \
+      libx11-xcb1 \
+      libxcb-icccm4 \
+      libxcb-keysyms1 \
+      libxcb-randr0 \
+      libxcb-shape0 \
+      libxcb-sync1 \
+      libxcb-xfixes0 \
+      libxcb-xkb1 \
+      libxcb1-dev \
+      libxkbcommon-x11-0 \
+      libxkbcommon0 \
       openjdk-21-jre-headless \
       python3 \
       python3-yaml \
diff --git a/bazel/qt-bazel-xcb-cursor-from-source.patch b/bazel/qt-bazel-xcb-cursor-from-source.patch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..008858fa568
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bazel/qt-bazel-xcb-cursor-from-source.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+diff --git a/interface_libs/xcb/BUILD.bazel b/interface_libs/xcb/BUILD.bazel
+index c1c5b6b6..3a659170 100644
+--- a/interface_libs/xcb/BUILD.bazel
++++ b/interface_libs/xcb/BUILD.bazel
+@@ -67,10 +67,41 @@ cc_import(
+     system_provided = True,
+ )
+ 
+-cc_import(
+-    name = "xcb_cursor_ifso",
+-    interface_library = "libxcb-cursor.ifso",
+-    system_provided = True,
++# Headers-only target for xcb utility headers.  Used by :xcb_cursor to
++# get xcb_renderutil.h, xcb_image.h, render.h etc. without depending on
++# the full :xcb target (which would create a circular dependency).
++cc_library(
++    name = "xcb_hdrs",
++    hdrs = glob(["xcb/*.h"]),
++    includes = ["."],
++    strip_include_prefix = ".",
++)
++
++# Build xcb-util-cursor from source instead of relying on a system-provided
++# shared library.  The source is downloaded into cursor/ by patch_cmds in
++# the consumer's MODULE.bazel.  This makes the Qt xcb platform plugin
++# self-contained — no host libxcb-cursor0 package required.
++cc_library(
++    name = "xcb_cursor",
++    srcs = [
++        "cursor/cursor.c",
++        "cursor/cursor.h",
++        "cursor/load_cursor.c",
++        "cursor/parse_cursor_file.c",
++        "cursor/shape_to_id.c",
++    ],
++    hdrs = ["cursor/xcb_cursor.h"],
++    copts = [
++        # asprintf() is a GNU extension; glibc gates it behind _GNU_SOURCE.
++        "-D_GNU_SOURCE",
++        "-DXCURSORPATH='\"~/.icons:/usr/share/icons:/usr/share/pixmaps:/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/icons\"'",
++    ],
++    include_prefix = "xcb",
++    strip_include_prefix = "cursor",
++    deps = [
++        ":xcb_hdrs",
++        "@libxcb",
++    ],
+ )
+ 
+ cc_import(
+@@ -94,7 +125,7 @@ cc_library(
+     deps = select({
+         "@platforms//cpu:aarch64": [],
+         "//conditions:default": [
+-            ":xcb_cursor_ifso",
++            ":xcb_cursor",
+             ":xcb_icccm_ifso",
+             ":xcb_ifso",
+             ":xcb_image_ifso",
diff --git a/docs/user/Build.md b/docs/user/Build.md
index 60675b30d66..c182ccef59d 100644
--- a/docs/user/Build.md
+++ b/docs/user/Build.md
@@ -17,23 +17,23 @@ There are three methods for building OpenROAD (in order of recommendation): preb
 
 ## Build and install with Bazel
 
-Build OpenROAD with GUI support and install into ../install/OpenROAD/bin
+Build OpenROAD and install into ../install/OpenROAD/bin
 
-    bazelisk run --//:platform=gui //:install
+    bazelisk run //:install
 
 To install to a custom location, e.g. /tmp/myinstall
 
-    bazelisk run --//:platform=gui //:install -- /tmp/myinstall
+    bazelisk run //:install -- /tmp/myinstall
 
 To produce an openroad.tar file with install files
 
-    bazelisk build --//:platform=gui //:tarfile
+    bazelisk build //:tarfile
 
 The tarfile is located at bazel-bin/packaging/openroad.tar.
 
 To embed the real git version string, add `--config=release`:
 
-    bazelisk run --config=release --//:platform=gui //:install
+    bazelisk run --config=release //:install
 
 The install process will install the binary "openroad" and the runfile directory
 "openroad.runfiles" which contains runtime data needed by the binary.
diff --git a/src/gui/README.md b/src/gui/README.md
index eabe13f5639..125bbe80886 100644
--- a/src/gui/README.md
+++ b/src/gui/README.md
@@ -958,7 +958,7 @@ timing groups display the internal clock latency inline:
 To view this, run the MockArray example and look at reg2reg paths:
 
 ```
-bazelisk run --//:platform=gui //test/orfs/mock-array:MockArray_4x4_base_synth gui_synth
+bazelisk run //test/orfs/mock-array:MockArray_4x4_base_synth gui_synth
 ```
 
 ## License