--- /dev/null
+When building git-annex 10.20250320 under `-f-assistant`, I hit into
+the following error:
+
+```
+[363 of 647] Compiling Annex.ChangedRefs ( Annex/ChangedRefs.hs, /git-annex/dist-newstyle/build/x86_64-linux/ghc-9.8.4/git-annex-10.20250320/build/git-annex/git-annex-tmp/Annex/ChangedRefs.o, /git-annex/dist-newstyle/build/x86_64-linux/ghc-9.8.4/git-annex-10.20250320/build/git-annex/git-annex-tmp/Annex/ChangedRefs.dyn_o )
+
+Annex/ChangedRefs.hs:96:48: error: [GHC-83865]
+ • Couldn't match type ‘OS.ByteString’ with ‘[Char]’
+ Expected: FilePath
+ Actual: System.Posix.ByteString.FilePath.RawFilePath
+ • In the first argument of ‘watchDir’, namely ‘refdir’
+ In the second argument of ‘($)’, namely
+ ‘watchDir refdir (const False) True hooks id’
+ In a stmt of a 'do' block:
+ h <- liftIO $ watchDir refdir (const False) True hooks id
+ |
+96 | h <- liftIO $ watchDir refdir
+ | ^^^^^^
+```
+
+If I drop the `-f-assistant`, the build completes successfully.
+
+Alternatively, I was able to keep `-f-assistant` by un-indenting this
+block from git-annex.cabal one level:
+
+```
+ if os(linux)
+ Build-Depends: hinotify (>= 0.3.10)
+ CPP-Options: -DWITH_INOTIFY
+ Other-Modules: Utility.DirWatcher.INotify
+ else
+ if os(darwin)
+ Build-Depends: hfsevents
+ CPP-Options: -DWITH_FSEVENTS
+ Other-Modules:
+ Utility.DirWatcher.FSEvents
+ else
+ if os(windows)
+ Build-Depends: Win32-notify
+ CPP-Options: -DWITH_WIN32NOTIFY
+ Other-Modules: Utility.DirWatcher.Win32Notify
+ else
+ if (! os(solaris) && ! os(gnu) && ! os(linux))
+ CPP-Options: -DWITH_KQUEUE
+ C-Sources: Utility/libkqueue.c
+ Includes: Utility/libkqueue.h
+ Other-Modules: Utility.DirWatcher.Kqueue
+```
+
+I suspect that this is a general issue that anyone compiling without
+the assistant feature enabled would encounter. Here are other details
+of the setup in case they turn out to be relevant:
+
+ * Alpine Linux v3.21 image [*] with GHC 9.8.4
+ (<https://gitlab.com/benz0li/ghc-musl>)
+
+ * `cabal build` called with these flags:
+
+ - `--enable-executable-static`
+ - `--ghc-options="-j$n +RTS -A256m -RTS -split-sections -optc-Os -optl=-pthread"`
+
+ Full setup is at <https://git.kyleam.com/static-annex/>.