diff --git a/core/core-lib.el b/core/core-lib.el
index 6a8c2a312..c5abda0fb 100644
--- a/core/core-lib.el
+++ b/core/core-lib.el
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 ;;; core-lib.el
 
-(require 'cl-lib)
-
 ;; I don't use use-package for these to save on the `fboundp' lookups it does
 ;; for its :commands property. I use dolists instead of mapc to avoid extra
 ;; stackframes allocated for lambdas. This is _definitely_ premature
diff --git a/core/core.el b/core/core.el
index 4e5387c59..a2fdf2bf4 100644
--- a/core/core.el
+++ b/core/core.el
@@ -154,6 +154,7 @@ enable multiple minor modes for the same regexp.")
       gc-cons-percentage 0.6)
 
 (let (file-name-handler-list)
+  (require 'cl-lib)
   (eval-and-compile
     (require 'core-packages (concat doom-core-dir "core-packages")))
   (eval-when-compile