diff --git a/build/sqlc/tool-dep/gomod-generated-placeholder.go b/build/sqlc/tool-dep/gomod-generated-placeholder.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..924235c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/sqlc/tool-dep/gomod-generated-placeholder.go
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+//go:build tools
+// +build tools
+
+// This is a synthetic file which depends on the sqlc binary. That in turn
+// makes `go mod tidy` pick it up, which in turns makes it available to Bazel.
+package main
+
+import (
+	_ "github.com/kyleconroy/sqlc/pkg/cli"
+)
+
+func main() {
+}