diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 774e27eb..646eba93 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
     "prettier:check": "prettier --experimental-cli --check .",
     "prettier:write": "prettier --experimental-cli --write .",
     "test": "npm test --workspace react-native-node-api --workspace cmake-rn --workspace gyp-to-cmake --workspace node-addon-examples",
-    "bootstrap": "node --run build && npm run bootstrap --workspaces --if-present",
+    "bootstrap": "node --run build && node scripts/bootstrap.ts",
     "changeset": "changeset",
     "release": "changeset publish",
     "prerelease": "node --run build && npm run prerelease --workspaces --if-present && node --run publint",
diff --git a/scripts/bootstrap.ts b/scripts/bootstrap.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1e993061
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/bootstrap.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+import path from "node:path";
+import assert from "node:assert/strict";
+import cp from "node:child_process";
+import fs from "node:fs";
+
+// Bootstrap every workspace sequentially, failing fast on the first error.
+//
+// We deliberately don't use "npm run bootstrap --workspaces --if-present" here:
+// npm keeps iterating the remaining workspaces even after one of them fails and
+// only surfaces a non-zero exit code once they've all run. Because later
+// workspaces depend on artifacts produced by earlier ones (e.g. the
+// weak-node-api xcframework consumed by node-addon-examples, node-tests and
+// ferric-example), a failure in an early workspace produces a cascade of
+// confusing secondary errors, hiding the actual root cause. Iterating ourselves
+// lets us stop at the first failing workspace.
+
+const rootDir = path.resolve(import.meta.dirname, "..");
+
+function readPackageJson(packageDir: string): Record<string, unknown> {
+  const contents = fs.readFileSync(
+    path.join(packageDir, "package.json"),
+    "utf8",
+  );
+  const parsed = JSON.parse(contents) as unknown;
+  assert(
+    typeof parsed === "object" && parsed !== null,
+    `Expected an object in ${packageDir}/package.json`,
+  );
+  return parsed as Record<string, unknown>;
+}
+
+const rootPackage = readPackageJson(rootDir);
+assert(
+  Array.isArray(rootPackage.workspaces),
+  "Expected a 'workspaces' array in the root package.json",
+);
+
+for (const workspace of rootPackage.workspaces) {
+  assert(typeof workspace === "string");
+  // The workspaces are declared as concrete directories – reject globs rather
+  // than silently skipping workspaces they were meant to expand to.
+  assert(
+    !workspace.includes("*"),
+    `Glob workspace patterns are not supported ('${workspace}')`,
+  );
+
+  const workspaceDir = path.resolve(rootDir, workspace);
+  const { name, scripts } = readPackageJson(workspaceDir);
+  assert(typeof name === "string");
+
+  const hasBootstrap =
+    typeof scripts === "object" && scripts !== null && "bootstrap" in scripts;
+  if (!hasBootstrap) {
+    continue;
+  }
+
+  console.log(`Bootstrapping '${name}'`);
+  const { status } = cp.spawnSync(
+    "npm",
+    ["run", "bootstrap", "--workspace", name],
+    { stdio: "inherit" },
+  );
+  assert.equal(
+    status,
+    0,
+    `Bootstrapping '${name}' failed (status = ${status})`,
+  );
+}