diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 199f2770a..e8e411022 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ tokio = { version = "1.37.0", features = ["full"] }
 tokio-serial = "5.4.4"
 futures = "0.3.30"
 clap = { version = "4.5.4", features = ["derive"] }
-serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"], default-features = false }
+serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"], optional = true }
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 tracing-test = "0.2.4"
@@ -36,4 +36,4 @@ serde_json = "1.0.64"
 
 [features]
 local_runner = []
-serde = []
+default = ["serde"]