diff --git a/BUILDCONFIG.gn b/BUILDCONFIG.gn
index d24887ecc..fd625f596 100644
--- a/BUILDCONFIG.gn
+++ b/BUILDCONFIG.gn
@@ -69,10 +69,7 @@ template("_pw_override_target_with_defaults") {
     }
 
     # Add default configs to use for all binary build targets.
-    configs += [
-      "$dir_pw_build:reduced_size",
-      "$dir_pw_build:strict_warnings",
-    ]
+    configs += [ "$dir_pw_build:default" ]
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/pw_build/BUILD.gn b/pw_build/BUILD.gn
index 9383f60b8..a32e49cdd 100644
--- a/pw_build/BUILD.gn
+++ b/pw_build/BUILD.gn
@@ -14,6 +14,20 @@
 
 import("$dir_pw_docgen/docs.gni")
 
+# The default config is applied to all targets in Pigweed's BUILDCONFIG.gn.
+config("default") {
+  configs = [
+    ":debugging",
+    ":reduced_size",
+    ":strict_warnings",
+  ]
+}
+
+config("debugging") {
+  # Enable debug symbol generation. This has no effect on final code size.
+  cflags = [ "-g" ]
+}
+
 # Standard compiler flags to reduce output binary size.
 config("reduced_size") {
   cflags = [