diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 76e27b7e9..9b670000d 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ option(OPENFPGA_WITH_TEST "Enable testing build for codebase. Once enabled, make
 option(OPENFPGA_WITH_VERSION "Enable version always-up-to-date when building codebase. Disable only when you do not care an accurate version number" ON)
 option(OPENFPGA_WITH_SWIG "Enable SWIG interface when building codebase. Disable when you do not need high-level interfaces, such as Tcl/Python" ON)
 option(OPENFPGA_ENABLE_STRICT_COMPILE "Specifies whether compiler warnings should be treated as errors (e.g. -Werror)" OFF)
+option(OPENFPGA_UPDATE_UNIQUE_BLOCK_CAPN "Specifies whether to update capn'proto files required by unique block. Recommend only after any modification on  unique block parsers and data structures" OFF)
 
 # Options pass on to VTR
 set(WITH_ABC ON CACHE BOOL "Enable building ABC in Verilog-to-Routing")
diff --git a/libs/libopenfpgacapnproto/CMakeLists.txt b/libs/libopenfpgacapnproto/CMakeLists.txt
index c81ab82f3..af1532d0c 100644
--- a/libs/libopenfpgacapnproto/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/libs/libopenfpgacapnproto/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -32,11 +32,11 @@ add_library(libopenfpgacapnproto STATIC
             ${IC_SRCS}
             )
 
-
-add_dependencies(libopenfpgacapnproto
-    generate_unique_block_capnp
-    )
-
+if (OPENFPGA_UPDATE_UNIQUE_BLOCK_CAPN)
+  add_dependencies(libopenfpgacapnproto
+      generate_unique_block_capnp
+      )
+endif()
 
 target_include_directories(libopenfpgacapnproto PUBLIC
     ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
@@ -64,4 +64,4 @@ add_custom_target(
     COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy unique_blocks_capnproto_generate/unique_blocks_uxsdcxx.capnp ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/gen
     DEPENDS ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/gen/unique_blocks.xsd
     WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
-)
\ No newline at end of file
+)