diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index ea21b3de1..abb6345dd 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -36,6 +36,13 @@ For distributors and developers
   which allows you to use `uv <https://github.com/astral-sh/uv>`__ to provide Sphinx (e.g. `uv run cargo install --path .`).
 - The minimum supported Rust version (MSRV) has been updated to 1.85.
 - Fixed saving/loading of universal variables on Cygwin (:issue:`11948`).
+- The standalone build mode has been made the default.
+  This means that the files in ``$CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX/share/fish`` will generally not be used anymore, with minor exceptions.
+  For now, they are still installed redundantly, to prevent upgrades from breaking already-running shells (:issue:`11921`).
+  This change means that future upgrades will no longer break running shells when an internal function has changed.
+  To turn this off (which should not be necessary),
+  patch out the ``embed-data`` feature from ``cmake/Rust.cmake``.
+  This option will be removed in future.
 
 
 fish 4.1.3 (released ???)
diff --git a/build_tools/release-notes.sh b/build_tools/release-notes.sh
index ddd64e466..2b84fe706 100755
--- a/build_tools/release-notes.sh
+++ b/build_tools/release-notes.sh
@@ -84,7 +84,9 @@ if test -z "$CI" || git -C "$workspace_root" tag | grep -q .; then {
     echo 'The file downloaded from ``Source code (tar.gz)`` will not build correctly.'
     echo 'A GPG signature using the key published at '"${FISH_GPG_PUBLIC_KEY_URL:-???}"' is available as ``fish-'"$version"'.tar.xz.asc``.'
     echo
-    echo 'The files called ``fish-'"$version"'-linux-\*.tar.xz`` are experimental packages containing a single standalone ``fish`` binary for any Linux with the given CPU architecture.'
+    echo 'The files called ``fish-'"$version"'-linux-\*.tar.xz`` contain'
+    echo '`standalone fish binaries <https://github.com/fish-shell/fish-shell/?tab=readme-ov-file#building-fish-with-cargo>`__'
+    echo 'for any Linux with the given CPU architecture.'
 } >"$relnotes_tmp/fake-workspace"/CHANGELOG.rst
 
 sphinx-build >&2 -j auto \
diff --git a/cmake/Rust.cmake b/cmake/Rust.cmake
index 370c2287d..b19451399 100644
--- a/cmake/Rust.cmake
+++ b/cmake/Rust.cmake
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ find_package(Rust REQUIRED)
 
 set(FISH_RUST_BUILD_DIR "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/cargo/build")
 
+list(APPEND FISH_CARGO_FEATURES_LIST "embed-data")
+
 if(DEFINED ASAN)
     list(APPEND CARGO_FLAGS "-Z" "build-std")
     list(APPEND FISH_CARGO_FEATURES_LIST "asan")
diff --git a/doc_src/language.rst b/doc_src/language.rst
index 2cc4f568a..022161085 100644
--- a/doc_src/language.rst
+++ b/doc_src/language.rst
@@ -381,7 +381,6 @@ By default ``$fish_function_path`` contains the following:
 - A directory for users to keep their own functions, usually ``~/.config/fish/functions`` (controlled by the ``XDG_CONFIG_HOME`` environment variable).
 - A directory for functions for all users on the system, usually ``/etc/fish/functions`` (really ``$__fish_sysconfdir/functions``).
 - Directories for other software to put their own functions. These are in the directories under ``$__fish_user_data_dir`` (usually ``~/.local/share/fish``, controlled by the ``XDG_DATA_HOME`` environment variable) and in the ``XDG_DATA_DIRS`` environment variable, in a subdirectory called ``fish/vendor_functions.d``. The default value for ``XDG_DATA_DIRS`` is usually ``/usr/share/fish/vendor_functions.d`` and ``/usr/local/share/fish/vendor_functions.d``.
-- The functions shipped with fish, usually installed in ``/usr/share/fish/functions`` (really ``$__fish_data_dir/functions``).
 
 If you are unsure, your functions probably belong in ``~/.config/fish/functions``.