diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index b459a30..8c9c20f 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -54,3 +54,7 @@
 # Compilation Artifacts
 src/backend/build_error*.txt
 src/backend/test_errors.txt
+src/backend/bundled_resources
+\
+
+src/backend/build_assets/
diff --git a/scripts/prepare-resources.cjs b/scripts/prepare-resources.cjs
index 9450019..5208352 100644
--- a/scripts/prepare-resources.cjs
+++ b/scripts/prepare-resources.cjs
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 const projectRoot = path.resolve(__dirname, '..');
 const backendDir = path.resolve(projectRoot, 'src/backend');
-const resTargetDir = path.resolve(backendDir, 'resources');
+const buildAssetsDir = path.resolve(backendDir, 'build_assets');
 
 function copyRecursiveSync(src, dest) {
     const stats = fs.statSync(src);
@@ -19,52 +19,53 @@
     }
 }
 
-// Clean and recreate target directories
-if (fs.existsSync(resTargetDir)) {
-    fs.rmSync(resTargetDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+// Clean and recreate build_assets
+console.log('Cleaning build_assets directory...');
+if (fs.existsSync(buildAssetsDir)) {
+    fs.rmSync(buildAssetsDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
 }
-fs.mkdirSync(resTargetDir, { recursive: true });
+fs.mkdirSync(buildAssetsDir, { recursive: true });
 
-// 1. Copy DLLs from bin/ to backend/ (flat) - These go to the APP ROOT in MSI
+// 1. Copy DLLs from bin/ to build_assets/ (flat)
 const binDir = path.join(projectRoot, 'bin');
 if (fs.existsSync(binDir)) {
     fs.readdirSync(binDir).forEach(file => {
         if (file.endsWith('.dll')) {
             const src = path.join(binDir, file);
-            const dest = path.join(backendDir, file);
-            console.log(`Copying ${src} to ${dest}`);
+            const dest = path.join(buildAssetsDir, file);
+            console.log(`[DLL] Copying ${file} to build_assets/`);
             fs.copyFileSync(src, dest);
         }
     });
 }
 
-// 2. Copy critical JSON files from root to resources/
+// 2. Copy critical JSON files to build_assets/
 ['mcp.json', 'config.json'].forEach(file => {
     const src = path.join(projectRoot, file);
     if (fs.existsSync(src)) {
-        const dest = path.join(resTargetDir, file);
-        console.log(`Copying ${src} to ${dest}`);
+        const dest = path.join(buildAssetsDir, file);
+        console.log(`[JSON] Copying ${file} to build_assets/`);
         fs.copyFileSync(src, dest);
     }
 });
 
-// 3. Copy models/ to resources/models/
+// 3. Copy models/ to build_assets/models/
 const modelsDir = path.join(projectRoot, 'models');
 if (fs.existsSync(modelsDir)) {
-    const dest = path.join(resTargetDir, 'models');
-    console.log(`Copying ${modelsDir} to ${dest}`);
+    const dest = path.join(buildAssetsDir, 'models');
+    console.log(`[Models] Copying folder to build_assets/models/`);
     copyRecursiveSync(modelsDir, dest);
 }
 
-// 4. Copy everything from resources/ to backend/resources/ (preserving structure)
+// 4. Copy everything from resources/ to build_assets/
 const resSrcDir = path.join(projectRoot, 'resources');
 if (fs.existsSync(resSrcDir)) {
     fs.readdirSync(resSrcDir).forEach(child => {
         const src = path.join(resSrcDir, child);
-        const dest = path.join(resTargetDir, child);
-        console.log(`Copying ${src} to ${dest}`);
+        const dest = path.join(buildAssetsDir, child);
+        console.log(`[Resource] Copying ${child} to build_assets/`);
         copyRecursiveSync(src, dest);
     });
 }
 
-console.log('Resource preparation complete.');
+console.log('Resource preparation complete (build_assets isolated).');
diff --git a/src/backend/src/lib.rs b/src/backend/src/lib.rs
index 52faa23..7614a82 100644
--- a/src/backend/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/backend/src/lib.rs
@@ -27,18 +27,15 @@
 fn get_mcp_info(app_handle: tauri::AppHandle) -> Result<serde_json::Value, String> {
     let mut candidates = vec![PathBuf::from("mcp.json")];
     
-    // Add resource dir candidates
     if let Ok(res_dir) = app_handle.path().resource_dir() {
-        candidates.push(res_dir.join("mcp.json"));
-        candidates.push(res_dir.join("resources").join("mcp.json"));
+        candidates.push(res_dir.join("build_assets").join("mcp.json"));
     }
 
     if let Ok(exe_path) = env::current_exe() {
         if let Some(exe_dir) = exe_path.parent() {
             let mut p = exe_dir.to_path_buf();
             for _ in 0..5 {
-                candidates.push(p.join("mcp.json"));
-                candidates.push(p.join("resources").join("mcp.json"));
+                candidates.push(p.join("build_assets").join("mcp.json"));
                 if !p.pop() { break; }
             }
         }
@@ -86,8 +83,7 @@
     }
     if let Ok(cwd) = env::current_dir() { config_paths.push(cwd.join("config.json")); }
     if let Ok(res_dir) = app_handle.path().resource_dir() {
-        config_paths.push(res_dir.join("config.json"));
-        config_paths.push(res_dir.join("resources").join("config.json"));
+        config_paths.push(res_dir.join("build_assets").join("config.json"));
     }
 
     for path in config_paths {
@@ -146,9 +142,7 @@
 
     if !cfg!(debug_assertions) {
         if let Ok(res_dir) = app_handle.path().resource_dir() {
-            candidates.push(res_dir.join("vec0.dll"));
-            // Also look in resources root in case it's placed there by bundle.resources
-            candidates.push(res_dir.join("bin").join("vec0.dll"));
+            candidates.push(res_dir.join("build_assets").join("vec0.dll"));
         }
     }
 
@@ -192,14 +186,17 @@
         .map(|p| p.parent().map(|parent| parent.to_path_buf()).unwrap_or_default())
         .unwrap_or_default();
 
-    // Preference: res_dir > exe_dir
-    let base_dir = if res_dir.exists() { res_dir.clone() } else { exe_dir.clone() };
+    // Preference: build_assets Dir in resDir
+    let build_assets_dir = res_dir.join("build_assets");
+    let base_dir = if build_assets_dir.exists() { build_assets_dir } else { exe_dir.join("build_assets") };
     
-    // Model path could be in models/ or resources/models/
+    // Model path should be in build_assets/models/
     let mut model_path = base_dir.join("models").join("embeddinggemma-300m-q4_0.gguf");
     if !model_path.exists() {
-        model_path = base_dir.join("resources").join("models").join("embeddinggemma-300m-q4_0.gguf");
+        // Fallback or absolute path search if needed
+        model_path = base_dir.join("models").join("embeddinggemma-300m-q4_0.gguf");
     }
+    log::info!("Using base_dir for sidecar: {:?}", base_dir);
     log::info!("Using model path for sidecar: {:?}", model_path);
 
     // Prepare arguments
@@ -229,13 +226,8 @@
     // Comprehensive PATH candidates
     let old_path = std::env::var("PATH").unwrap_or_default();
     let mut path_candidates = vec![
-        res_dir.display().to_string(),
-        exe_dir.display().to_string(),
+        base_dir.display().to_string(),
     ];
-    
-    // Also include potential nested bin/resources folders
-    path_candidates.push(res_dir.join("resources").display().to_string());
-    path_candidates.push(exe_dir.join("resources").display().to_string());
 
     // Normalize paths to remove UNC prefix (\\?\) which can break some programs on Windows
     let new_path = format!("{};{}", path_candidates.join(";"), old_path).replace("\\\\?\\", "");
@@ -243,14 +235,10 @@
     
     let mut sidecar_cmd = sidecar.args(args).env("PATH", new_path);
     
-    // Set current directory to the resource folder (where DLLs should be)
-    // Preference: res_dir > exe_dir
-    if res_dir.exists() {
-        log::info!("Setting sidecar current_dir to: {:?}", res_dir);
-        sidecar_cmd = sidecar_cmd.current_dir(&res_dir);
-    } else if exe_dir.exists() {
-        log::info!("Setting sidecar current_dir to: {:?}", exe_dir);
-        sidecar_cmd = sidecar_cmd.current_dir(&exe_dir);
+    // Set current directory to the base_dir (where DLLs are)
+    if base_dir.exists() {
+        log::info!("Setting sidecar current_dir to: {:?}", base_dir);
+        sidecar_cmd = sidecar_cmd.current_dir(&base_dir);
     }
 
     let (mut rx, _child) = match sidecar_cmd.spawn() {
diff --git a/src/backend/tauri.conf.json b/src/backend/tauri.conf.json
index be1ced2..ed493b9 100644
--- a/src/backend/tauri.conf.json
+++ b/src/backend/tauri.conf.json
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
     "active": true,
     "targets": "all",
     "externalBin": ["../../bin/llama-server"],
-    "resources": ["resources/**/*", "*.dll"],
+    "resources": ["build_assets/**/*"],
     "icon": [
       "../../resources/icons/32x32.png",
       "../../resources/icons/128x128.png",