diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yaml b/.github/workflows/release.yaml
index a7b8dff..39f9e06 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yaml
@@ -67,8 +67,6 @@ jobs:
       TARGET_DIR: ./target
       # Emit backtraces on panics.
       RUST_BACKTRACE: 1
-      # The name of the executable to expect
-      EXE_NAME: ein
     strategy:
       matrix:
         build: [ linux, linux-arm, macos, win-msvc, win-gnu, win32-msvc ]
@@ -104,6 +102,11 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           fetch-depth: 1
+          
+      - name: Install Protoc
+        uses: arduino/setup-protoc@v3
+        with:
+          repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
 
       - name: Install packages (Ubuntu)
         # Because openssl doesn't work on musl by default, we resort to max-pure. And that won't need any dependency, so we can skip this.continue-on-error
@@ -111,6 +114,10 @@ jobs:
         if: matrix.os == 'ubuntu-latest-disabled'
         run: |
           sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends xz-utils liblz4-tool musl-tools
+      
+      - name: compile protobuf
+        run: |
+          protoc --descriptor_set_out=./tunneld-protocol/src/message.bin --proto_path=tunneld-protocol/src message.proto
 
       - name: Install Rust
         uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@master
@@ -126,11 +133,6 @@ jobs:
           echo "TARGET_FLAGS=--target ${{ matrix.target }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
           echo "TARGET_DIR=./target/${{ matrix.target }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
 
-      - name: Install Protoc
-        uses: arduino/setup-protoc@v3
-        with:
-          repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
-
       - name: Show command used for Cargo
         run: |
           echo "cargo command is: ${{ env.CARGO }}"
@@ -156,33 +158,20 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build release binary
         run: ${{ env.CARGO }} build --verbose --release ${{ env.TARGET_FLAGS }}
 
-      - name: Strip release binary (linux and macos)
-        if: matrix.build == 'linux' || matrix.build == 'macos'
-        run: strip target/${{ matrix.target }}/release/${{ env.EXE_NAME }} target/${{ matrix.target }}/release/gix
-
-      - name: Strip release binary (arm)
-        if: matrix.build == 'linux-arm'
-        run: |
-          docker run --rm -v \
-            "$PWD/target:/target:Z" \
-            rustembedded/cross:arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf \
-            arm-linux-gnueabihf-strip \
-            /target/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf/release/${{ env.EXE_NAME }} \
-            /target/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf/release/gix
       - name: Build archive
         shell: bash
         run: |
           staging="tunneld-${{ env.RELEASE_VERSION }}-${{ matrix.target }}"
           mkdir -p "$staging"
 
-          cp {README.md,LICENSE-*,CHANGELOG.md} "$staging/"
+          cp {README.md,LICENSE} "$staging/"
 
           if [ "${{ matrix.os }}" = "windows-latest" ]; then
-            cp target/release/${{ env.EXE_NAME }}.exe target/release/gix.exe "$staging/"
+            cp target/${{ matrix.target }}/release/tunneld.exe target/${{ matrix.target }}/release/tunnel.exe "$staging/"
             7z a "$staging.zip" "$staging"
             echo "ASSET=$staging.zip" >> $GITHUB_ENV
           else
-            cp target/${{ matrix.target }}/release/${{ env.EXE_NAME }} target/${{ matrix.target }}/release/gix "$staging/"
+            cp target/${{ matrix.target }}/release/tunneld target/${{ matrix.target }}/release/tunnel "$staging/"
             tar czf "$staging.tar.gz" "$staging"
             echo "ASSET=$staging.tar.gz" >> $GITHUB_ENV
           fi
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index d8bd773..2633021 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 /target
-*.txt
\ No newline at end of file
+*.txt
+*.bin
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index c5d276b..6533c24 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -670,6 +670,15 @@ version = "0.3.9"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "d231dfb89cfffdbc30e7fc41579ed6066ad03abda9e567ccafae602b97ec5024"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "home"
+version = "0.5.9"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "e3d1354bf6b7235cb4a0576c2619fd4ed18183f689b12b006a0ee7329eeff9a5"
+dependencies = [
+ "windows-sys 0.52.0",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "http"
 version = "0.2.12"
@@ -2017,6 +2026,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "prost",
  "tonic",
  "tonic-build",
+ "which",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -2204,6 +2214,18 @@ dependencies = [
  "wasm-bindgen",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "which"
+version = "6.0.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "8211e4f58a2b2805adfbefbc07bab82958fc91e3836339b1ab7ae32465dce0d7"
+dependencies = [
+ "either",
+ "home",
+ "rustix",
+ "winsafe",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "winapi"
 version = "0.3.9"
@@ -2375,6 +2397,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "windows-sys 0.48.0",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "winsafe"
+version = "0.0.19"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "d135d17ab770252ad95e9a872d365cf3090e3be864a34ab46f48555993efc904"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "wiremock"
 version = "0.6.0"
diff --git a/tunneld-pkg/Cargo.toml b/tunneld-pkg/Cargo.toml
index 99cfbe4..d03ba23 100644
--- a/tunneld-pkg/Cargo.toml
+++ b/tunneld-pkg/Cargo.toml
@@ -17,4 +17,4 @@ futures = "0.3.30"
 bytes = "1.6.0"
 
 [features]
-debug=[]
\ No newline at end of file
+debug=[]
diff --git a/tunneld-protocol/Cargo.toml b/tunneld-protocol/Cargo.toml
index 5f18cb7..b000af4 100644
--- a/tunneld-protocol/Cargo.toml
+++ b/tunneld-protocol/Cargo.toml
@@ -14,3 +14,4 @@ prost = "0.12.6"
 
 [build-dependencies]
 tonic-build = "0.11.0"
+which = "6.0.1"
diff --git a/tunneld-protocol/build.rs b/tunneld-protocol/build.rs
index b10786d..8f43e83 100644
--- a/tunneld-protocol/build.rs
+++ b/tunneld-protocol/build.rs
@@ -1,8 +1,24 @@
 use std::io::Result;
 
+use which::which;
+
 fn main() -> Result<()> {
-    tonic_build::configure()
-        .protoc_arg("--experimental_allow_proto3_optional")
-        .compile(&["src/message.proto"], &["src/"])?;
+    let builder = tonic_build::configure().protoc_arg("--experimental_allow_proto3_optional");
+
+    match which("protoc") {
+        Ok(_) => {
+            println!("found protoc");
+            builder.compile(&["src/message.proto"], &["src/"])?;
+        }
+        Err(_) => {
+            println!("since there is no protoc in the path, we skip the protoc run");
+            println!("protoc --descriptor_set_out=message.bin --proto_path=. message.proto");
+            builder
+                .skip_protoc_run()
+                .file_descriptor_set_path("src/message.bin")
+                .compile(&["src/message.bin"], &["src/"])?;
+        }
+    }
+
     Ok(())
 }
diff --git a/tunneld-protocol/src/lib.rs b/tunneld-protocol/src/lib.rs
index 36a8cf8..fef4910 100644
--- a/tunneld-protocol/src/lib.rs
+++ b/tunneld-protocol/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 pub mod pb {
-	tonic::include_proto!("message");
+    tonic::include_proto!("message");
 }
 
 // before connectrpc releases rust version, we validate the message by ourselves