diff --git a/sledge/.gitignore b/sledge/.gitignore
index eafd1b195..b680501ce 100644
--- a/sledge/.gitignore
+++ b/sledge/.gitignore
@@ -1,6 +1,3 @@
-.llvm_build
-.llvm_install
-/llvm/
 /model/cxxabi.bc
 /model/lib_fuzzer_main.bc
 /test/**/*.bc
@@ -11,4 +8,7 @@
 /test/*.sexp
 /test/extra
 /test/local
+/vendor/llvm-dune/llvm-project/llvm/test
+/vendor/llvm-dune/llvm_*.opam
+/vendor/llvm-dune/src
 _build
diff --git a/sledge/Makefile b/sledge/Makefile
index 586b0676e..6b1cd5609 100644
--- a/sledge/Makefile
+++ b/sledge/Makefile
@@ -20,38 +20,59 @@ dune_install_trace = $(subst release,trace,$(dune_install_release))
 dune_build_debug = $(subst release,debug,$(dune_build_release))
 dune_install_debug = $(subst release,debug,$(dune_install_release))
 
+LLVM_OCAML_SRC = $(shell git ls-files -- vendor/llvm-dune)
+
+# file to use as a sentinel indicating llvm ocaml bindings are up-to-date
+LLVM_OCAML_SENTINEL=vendor/llvm-dune/src/llvm/common/dune
+
+# Note that this does not correctly detect llvm shared libraries on
+# macos since llvm-config is broken. A filthy workaround seems to be
+# to create the libLLVM-11.dylib file llvm-config looks for as a
+# symbolic link to libLLVM.dylib:
+# LLVMROOT=$(dirname $(dirname $(opam config var conf-llvm:config))) \
+# ln -s $LLVMROOT/lib/libLLVM.dylib $LLVMROOT/lib/libLLVM-11.dylib
+
+$(LLVM_OCAML_SENTINEL): $(LLVM_OCAML_SRC)
+	cd vendor/llvm-dune; ./setup.sh $$(opam config var conf-llvm:config) &>/dev/null
+
+clean_llvm:
+	rm -rf vendor/llvm-dune/{src,llvm_*.opam}
+
+.PHONY: setup
+setup: $(LLVM_OCAML_SENTINEL)
+
 .PHONY: check
-check:
+check: setup
 	dune build @check
 
 .PHONY: exes
-exes:
+exes: setup
 	dune build $(TARGETS)
 	$(dune_install_debug)
 	$(dune_install_trace)
 	$(dune_install_release)
 
 .PHONY: debug
-debug:
+debug: setup
 	$(dune_build_debug)
 	$(dune_install_debug)
 
 .PHONY: trace
-trace:
+trace: setup
 	$(dune_build_trace)
 	$(dune_install_trace)
 
 .PHONY: release
-release:
+release: setup
 	$(dune_build_release)
 	$(dune_install_release)
 
 .PHONY: report
-report:
+report: setup
 	dune build $(REPORT_TARGETS)
 
 .PHONY: watch
-watch:
+watch: setup
 	dune build --watch --terminal-persistence=clear-on-rebuild $(TARGETS)
 
 .PHONY: test
diff --git a/sledge/dune b/sledge/dune
index d4db12f9b..1ceb87a65 100644
--- a/sledge/dune
+++ b/sledge/dune
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@
   (preprocess
    (pps ppx_sledge ppx_trace))))
 
-(dirs :standard \ llvm test)
+(dirs :standard \ test)
 
 (vendored_dirs vendor)
 
diff --git a/sledge/ppx_trace/ppx_trace.ml b/sledge/ppx_trace/ppx_trace.ml
index 969a3bddf..808b7e3f6 100644
--- a/sledge/ppx_trace/ppx_trace.ml
+++ b/sledge/ppx_trace/ppx_trace.ml
@@ -61,7 +61,8 @@ let debug = ref false
 ;;
 Driver.Cookies.add_simple_handler "ppx_trace_enabled" Ast_pattern.__
   ~f:(function
-  | Some {pexp_desc= Pexp_constant (Pconst_string (("1" | "true"), _))} ->
+  | Some {pexp_desc= Pexp_constant (Pconst_string (("1" | "true"), _, _))}
+    ->
       debug := true
   | _ -> () )
 
diff --git a/sledge/sledge.opam b/sledge/sledge.opam
index 153d9c9ec..3d824e4ad 100644
--- a/sledge/sledge.opam
+++ b/sledge/sledge.opam
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ depends: [
   "base"
   "containers"
   "containers-data"
+  "conf-llvm" {= "11.0.0"}
   "core" {>= "v0.14"}
   "ctypes"
   "ctypes-foreign"
@@ -21,11 +22,10 @@ depends: [
   "dune-build-info" {build}
   "fpath"
   "iter"
-  "llvm" {= "8.0.0"}
   "mtime"
   "ppx_compare"
   "ppx_hash"
-  "ppxlib" {< "0.16.0"}
+  "ppxlib" {>= "0.21.0"}
   "shexp"
   "smtlib-utils"
   "yojson"
diff --git a/sledge/test/Makefile b/sledge/test/Makefile
index d9446d99d..10f049293 100644
--- a/sledge/test/Makefile
+++ b/sledge/test/Makefile
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@ sledge_report_exe:
 # which utilities to use
 diff?=patdiff
 
-# configure the non-host llvm and clang
-export PATH := $(CURDIR)/../.llvm_install/sledge/bin:$(PATH)
+# select llvm and clang used by opam
+export PATH := $(shell $$(opam config var conf-llvm:config) --bindir):$(PATH)
 
 # configure sort
 export LANG := C
diff --git a/sledge/test/llvm b/sledge/test/llvm
index 4405e5249..775c3b20e 120000
--- a/sledge/test/llvm
+++ b/sledge/test/llvm
@@ -1 +1 @@
-../llvm/test
\ No newline at end of file
+../vendor/llvm-dune/llvm-project/llvm/test
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/sledge/vendor/llvm-dune/setup.sh b/sledge/vendor/llvm-dune/setup.sh
index 9ca855559..c793efc01 100755
--- a/sledge/vendor/llvm-dune/setup.sh
+++ b/sledge/vendor/llvm-dune/setup.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/sh -ex
+#!/bin/sh -e
 
 if test "$(dirname $0)" != '.'; then
     echo "The script must be executed from its current directory."
@@ -19,12 +19,12 @@ llvm_config() {
     "$llvm_config" $@
 }
 
-if llvm_config --link-static --libs; then
+if llvm_config --link-static; then
     default_mode=static
     support_static_mode=true
 fi
 
-if llvm_config --link-shared --libs; then
+if llvm_config --link-shared; then
     default_mode=shared
     support_shared_mode=true
 fi