diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 18e3dc04b..793d1ea6c 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -31,3 +31,4 @@
 	path = external/loki-mq
 	url = https://github.com/loki-project/loki-mq
 	branch = dev
+
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 781a8ae8f..8a4daea4a 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -276,6 +276,8 @@ if(SUBMODULE_CHECK)
   endif()
 endif()
 
+add_subdirectory(external/loki-mq EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
+
 # We only actually need pybind11 with WITH_HIVE, but if we don't load it here then something further
 # down loads a broken PythonInterp that loads Python2, but Python2 headers are not C++17 compatible.
 # So load this here universally so that pybind's more intelligent python finder finds python3.x