diff --git a/tools/run/CMakeLists.txt b/tools/run/CMakeLists.txt
index 6ad7534e290..1d2108805c4 100644
--- a/tools/run/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tools/run/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -4,10 +4,15 @@ add_executable(${TARGET} run.cpp linenoise.cpp/linenoise.cpp)
 # TODO: avoid copying this code block from common/CMakeLists.txt
 set(LLAMA_RUN_EXTRA_LIBS "")
 if (LLAMA_CURL)
-    find_package(CURL REQUIRED)
-    target_compile_definitions(${TARGET} PUBLIC LLAMA_USE_CURL)
-    include_directories(${CURL_INCLUDE_DIRS})
-    set(LLAMA_RUN_EXTRA_LIBS ${LLAMA_RUN_EXTRA_LIBS} ${CURL_LIBRARIES})
+    find_package(CURL)
+    if (NOT CURL_FOUND)
+        message(WARNING "Could NOT find CURL. Falling back to cpp-httplib. Hint: to explicitly disable CURL, set -DLLAMA_CURL=OFF")
+        set(LLAMA_CURL OFF)
+    else()
+        target_compile_definitions(${TARGET} PUBLIC LLAMA_USE_CURL)
+        include_directories(${CURL_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+        set(LLAMA_RUN_EXTRA_LIBS ${LLAMA_RUN_EXTRA_LIBS} ${CURL_LIBRARIES})
+    endif()
 endif ()
 
 if(LLAMA_TOOLS_INSTALL)