diff --git a/dev-build/steve/steve-1.0.2.ebuild b/dev-build/steve/steve-1.0.2.ebuild
index 224e54c0b87b4..37287fd81579b 100644
--- a/dev-build/steve/steve-1.0.2.ebuild
+++ b/dev-build/steve/steve-1.0.2.ebuild
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ SRC_URI="
 LICENSE="GPL-2+"
 SLOT="0"
 KEYWORDS="~alpha ~amd64 ~arm ~arm64 ~hppa ~ppc ~ppc64 ~riscv ~x86"
+IUSE="debug"
 
 DEPEND="
 	dev-libs/libevent:=
@@ -31,6 +32,14 @@ pkg_pretend() {
 	check_extra_config
 }
 
+src_configure() {
+	local emesonargs=(
+		$(meson_use !debug b_ndebug)
+	)
+
+	meson_src_configure
+}
+
 src_install() {
 	meson_src_install
 
diff --git a/dev-build/steve/steve-9999.ebuild b/dev-build/steve/steve-9999.ebuild
index 3ed75322c26c9..3b91fc9a19a52 100644
--- a/dev-build/steve/steve-9999.ebuild
+++ b/dev-build/steve/steve-9999.ebuild
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ EGIT_REPO_URI="https://anongit.gentoo.org/git/proj/steve.git"
 
 LICENSE="GPL-2+"
 SLOT="0"
+IUSE="debug"
 
 DEPEND="
 	dev-libs/libevent:=
@@ -28,6 +29,14 @@ pkg_pretend() {
 	check_extra_config
 }
 
+src_configure() {
+	local emesonargs=(
+		$(meson_use !debug b_ndebug)
+	)
+
+	meson_src_configure
+}
+
 src_install() {
 	meson_src_install