diff --git a/justfile b/justfile
index 494178dc4..249e3b3e2 100644
--- a/justfile
+++ b/justfile
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ venv:
 pytest *args:
   {{VENV_BIN}}/poetry -C tests install --no-root
   {{VENV_BIN}}/poetry -C tests lock --no-update
-  {{VENV_BIN}}/poetry -C tests run pytest --rootdir={{invocation_directory()}}/tests {{ if args == "" {'tests'} else {args} }}
+  {{VENV_BIN}}/poetry -C tests run pytest -n auto -v --rootdir={{invocation_directory()}}/tests {{ if args == "" {'tests'} else {args} }}
 
 # private helpers below
 # ---------------------
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/dbt_project/profiles.yml b/tests/fixtures/dbt_project/profiles.yml
index fe9591e0a..a806ed851 100644
--- a/tests/fixtures/dbt_project/profiles.yml
+++ b/tests/fixtures/dbt_project/profiles.yml
@@ -4,9 +4,9 @@ glaredb_dbt_test:
       dbname: default
       host: 127.0.0.1
       pass: ""
-      port: 5432
+      port: "{{ env_var('GLAREDB_PORT') | as_number }}"
       schema: public
       threads: 1
       type: postgres
       user: "{{ env_var('DBT_USER') }}"
-  target: test_target
\ No newline at end of file
+  target: test_target
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/glaredb.py b/tests/fixtures/glaredb.py
index b9cdfbc8c..65aaf9ef4 100644
--- a/tests/fixtures/glaredb.py
+++ b/tests/fixtures/glaredb.py
@@ -1,34 +1,47 @@
+import socket
+import contextlib
 import pathlib
 import time
 import subprocess
 import sys
+import logging
 
 import pytest
 import psycopg2
 
 import tests
 
+logger = logging.getLogger("fixtures")
+
 
 @pytest.fixture
-def release_path() -> pathlib.Path:
-    return tests.PKG_DIRECTORY.joinpath("target", "release", "glaredb")
+def glaredb_path() -> list[pathlib.Path]:
+    return [
+        tests.PKG_DIRECTORY.joinpath("target", "release", "glaredb"),
+        tests.PKG_DIRECTORY.joinpath("target", "debug", "glaredb"),
+    ]
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
-def debug_path() -> pathlib.Path:
-    return tests.PKG_DIRECTORY.joinpath("target", "debug", "glaredb")
+def binary_path(glaredb_path: list[pathlib.Path]) -> pathlib.Path:
+    return glaredb_path[0] if glaredb_path[0].exists() else glaredb_path[1]
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
 def glaredb_connection(
-    debug_path: pathlib.Path,
+    binary_path: list[pathlib.Path],
     tmp_path_factory: pytest.TempPathFactory,
 ) -> psycopg2.extensions.connection:
-    addr = ("127.0.0.1", "5432")
+    with contextlib.closing(socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)) as s:
+        s.bind(("", 0))
+        s.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
+        addr = ("127.0.0.1", str(s.getsockname()[1]))
+
+    logger.info(f"starting glaredb on port {addr[0]}")
 
     with subprocess.Popen(
         [
-            debug_path.absolute(),
+            binary_path.absolute(),
             "--verbose",
             "server",
             "--data-dir",
diff --git a/tests/poetry.lock b/tests/poetry.lock
index c23f9d4ce..3a5ac17dd 100644
--- a/tests/poetry.lock
+++ b/tests/poetry.lock
@@ -385,6 +385,20 @@ idna = ["idna (>=3.6)"]
 trio = ["trio (>=0.23)"]
 wmi = ["wmi (>=1.5.1)"]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "execnet"
+version = "2.0.2"
+description = "execnet: rapid multi-Python deployment"
+optional = false
+python-versions = ">=3.7"
+files = [
+    {file = "execnet-2.0.2-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:88256416ae766bc9e8895c76a87928c0012183da3cc4fc18016e6f050e025f41"},
+    {file = "execnet-2.0.2.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:cc59bc4423742fd71ad227122eb0dd44db51efb3dc4095b45ac9a08c770096af"},
+]
+
+[package.extras]
+testing = ["hatch", "pre-commit", "pytest", "tox"]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "idna"
 version = "3.6"
@@ -1265,6 +1279,26 @@ pluggy = ">=0.12,<2.0"
 [package.extras]
 testing = ["argcomplete", "attrs (>=19.2.0)", "hypothesis (>=3.56)", "mock", "nose", "pygments (>=2.7.2)", "requests", "setuptools", "xmlschema"]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "pytest-xdist"
+version = "3.5.0"
+description = "pytest xdist plugin for distributed testing, most importantly across multiple CPUs"
+optional = false
+python-versions = ">=3.7"
+files = [
+    {file = "pytest-xdist-3.5.0.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:cbb36f3d67e0c478baa57fa4edc8843887e0f6cfc42d677530a36d7472b32d8a"},
+    {file = "pytest_xdist-3.5.0-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:d075629c7e00b611df89f490a5063944bee7a4362a5ff11c7cc7824a03dfce24"},
+]
+
+[package.dependencies]
+execnet = ">=1.1"
+pytest = ">=6.2.0"
+
+[package.extras]
+psutil = ["psutil (>=3.0)"]
+setproctitle = ["setproctitle"]
+testing = ["filelock"]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "python-dateutil"
 version = "2.8.2"
@@ -1631,4 +1665,4 @@ testing = ["big-O", "jaraco.functools", "jaraco.itertools", "more-itertools", "p
 [metadata]
 lock-version = "2.0"
 python-versions = "^3.11"
-content-hash = "5e6e8cea599dfb77f6f84ab86fd54b669b91ed8493477e6543c3f73fc8205870"
+content-hash = "439e63dbd47f423a004ae1c87b28b1b72b7ab53bbf38d7542a487874ccc444a7"
diff --git a/tests/pyproject.toml b/tests/pyproject.toml
index c97c7514e..df0040308 100644
--- a/tests/pyproject.toml
+++ b/tests/pyproject.toml
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ pylance = "^0.9.6"
 ruff = "0.1.14"
 dbt-core = "^1.7.7"
 dbt-postgres = "^1.7.7"
+pytest-xdist = "^3.5.0"
 
 [build-system]
 requires = ["poetry-core"]
diff --git a/tests/test_bson.py b/tests/test_bson.py
index bc898125b..6f9822766 100644
--- a/tests/test_bson.py
+++ b/tests/test_bson.py
@@ -9,13 +9,13 @@
 import psycopg2.extras
 import pytest
 
-from tests.fixtures.glaredb import glaredb_connection, debug_path
+from tests.fixtures.glaredb import glaredb_connection, glaredb_path, binary_path
 import tests.tools
 
 
 def test_bson_copy_to(
     glaredb_connection: psycopg2.extensions.connection,
-    debug_path: pathlib.Path,
+    binary_path: pathlib.Path,
     tmp_path_factory: pytest.TempPathFactory,
 ):
     curr = glaredb_connection.cursor()
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ def test_bson_copy_to(
     with tests.tools.cd(output_dir):
         out = subprocess.run(
             [
-                f"{debug_path}",
+                f"{binary_path}",
                 "--query",
                 f"select count(*) as count from '{output_fn}'",
                 "--mode",
diff --git a/tests/test_dbt.py b/tests/test_dbt.py
index 4cef6a204..fc37f2cd4 100644
--- a/tests/test_dbt.py
+++ b/tests/test_dbt.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 import pytest
 
 import tests.tools
-from tests.fixtures.glaredb import glaredb_connection, debug_path
+from tests.fixtures.glaredb import glaredb_connection, glaredb_path, binary_path
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
@@ -37,7 +37,10 @@ def test_dbt_glaredb(
         curr.execute("SELECT * FROM public.dbt_test")
         a = curr.fetchall()
 
-    with tests.tools.env("DBT_USER", glaredb_connection.info.user):
+    with (
+        tests.tools.env("GLAREDB_PORT", str(glaredb_connection.info.port)),
+        tests.tools.env("DBT_USER", glaredb_connection.info.user),
+    ):
         res: dbtRunnerResult = dbtRunner().invoke(
             [
                 "run",
@@ -80,7 +83,10 @@ def test_dbt_glaredb_external_postgres(
             """
         )
 
-    with tests.tools.env("DBT_USER", glaredb_connection.info.user):
+    with (
+        tests.tools.env("GLAREDB_PORT", str(glaredb_connection.info.port)),
+        tests.tools.env("DBT_USER", glaredb_connection.info.user),
+    ):
         res: dbtRunnerResult = dbtRunner().invoke(
             [
                 "run",
diff --git a/tests/test_functions.py b/tests/test_functions.py
index 5373e0f10..ecec2cc8b 100644
--- a/tests/test_functions.py
+++ b/tests/test_functions.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import psycopg2
 
-from tests.fixtures.glaredb import glaredb_connection, debug_path
+from tests.fixtures.glaredb import glaredb_connection, glaredb_path, binary_path
 
 
 def test_scalar_parsing(
diff --git a/tests/test_json.py b/tests/test_json.py
index d5f54813c..ff7fd5a77 100644
--- a/tests/test_json.py
+++ b/tests/test_json.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 import psycopg2.extras
 import pytest
 
-from tests.fixtures.glaredb import glaredb_connection, debug_path
+from tests.fixtures.glaredb import glaredb_connection, glaredb_path, binary_path
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
diff --git a/tests/test_lance.py b/tests/test_lance.py
index 3de44a3be..310d82b63 100644
--- a/tests/test_lance.py
+++ b/tests/test_lance.py
@@ -7,9 +7,8 @@
 import psycopg2.extras
 import pytest
 
-
 import tests.tools
-from tests.fixtures.glaredb import glaredb_connection, debug_path
+from tests.fixtures.glaredb import glaredb_connection, glaredb_path, binary_path
 
 
 def test_sanity_check(
diff --git a/tests/test_smoke.py b/tests/test_smoke.py
index 644a605a2..86a43cd19 100644
--- a/tests/test_smoke.py
+++ b/tests/test_smoke.py
@@ -5,20 +5,17 @@
 import pytest
 import psycopg2
 
-from tests.fixtures.glaredb import glaredb_connection, release_path, debug_path
+from tests.fixtures.glaredb import glaredb_connection, glaredb_path, binary_path
 
 
-def test_release_exists(release_path: pathlib.Path):
-    assert not release_path.exists()  # the release binary does not exist
+def test_binary_exists(glaredb_path: list[pathlib.Path]):
+    assert len(glaredb_path) == 2
+    assert glaredb_path[0].exists() or glaredb_path[1].exists()
 
 
-def test_debug_exists(debug_path: pathlib.Path):
-    assert debug_path.exists()  # the debug binary exists
-
-
-def test_debug_executes(debug_path: pathlib.Path):
+def test_binary_executes(binary_path: list[pathlib.Path]):
     # run the binary and see if it returns:
-    assert subprocess.check_call([debug_path.absolute(), "-q", "SELECT 1;"]) == 0
+    assert subprocess.check_call([binary_path.absolute(), "-q", "SELECT 1;"]) == 0
 
 
 def test_start(
@@ -29,14 +26,14 @@ def test_start(
 
 
 @pytest.mark.skipif(not sys.platform.startswith("linux"), reason="linux version of the test")
-def test_expected_linking_linux(debug_path: pathlib.Path):
+def test_expected_linking_linux(binary_path: pathlib.Path):
     out = [
         ll
         for cell in [
             item
             for item in [
                 line.split(" ")
-                for line in str(subprocess.check_output(["ldd", debug_path.absolute()], text=True))
+                for line in str(subprocess.check_output(["ldd", binary_path.absolute()], text=True))
                 .replace("\t", "")
                 .split("\n")
             ]