diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index f5e9bae074..9ac991d73a 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@
                 <version>${rascal-maven.version}</version>
                 <configuration>
                     <bootstrapRascalVersion>0.41.0-RC70</bootstrapRascalVersion>
+                    <modulesFromFile>true</modulesFromFile>
                     <parallel>true</parallel>
                     <parallelPreChecks>
                         <pre>${project.basedir}/src/org/rascalmpl/library/Prelude.rsc</pre>
diff --git a/src/org/rascalmpl/compiler/lang/rascalcore/check/Checker.rsc b/src/org/rascalmpl/compiler/lang/rascalcore/check/Checker.rsc
index f4dc90debb..8cc4760dbd 100644
--- a/src/org/rascalmpl/compiler/lang/rascalcore/check/Checker.rsc
+++ b/src/org/rascalmpl/compiler/lang/rascalcore/check/Checker.rsc
@@ -596,8 +596,18 @@ int main(
     bool warnUnusedPatternFormals = true,
     bool infoModuleChecked        = false,
     bool errorsAsWarnings         = false,
-    bool warningsAsErrors         = false
+    bool warningsAsErrors         = false,
+    bool readModulesFromFile      = false // if this is true, `modules` points to file(s) that we should read the module locations to compile from
 ) {
+
+    if (readModulesFromFile) {
+        list[loc] actualModules = [];
+        for (m <- modules) {
+            actualModules += readBinaryValueFile(#list[loc], m);
+        }
+        modules = actualModules;
+    }
+
     if (verbose) {
         println("PathConfig:");
         iprintln(pcfg);
diff --git a/src/org/rascalmpl/shell/RascalCompile.java b/src/org/rascalmpl/shell/RascalCompile.java
index ed09a52f5e..414446f99d 100644
--- a/src/org/rascalmpl/shell/RascalCompile.java
+++ b/src/org/rascalmpl/shell/RascalCompile.java
@@ -125,7 +125,27 @@ private static int parallelMain(Map<String, IValue> parsedArgs, IList preChecks,
 			final var chunk = chunks.get(index);
 			final var chunkBin = bins.get(index);
 			final Map<String,IValue> chunkArgs = new HashMap<>(parsedArgs);
-			chunkArgs.put("modules", chunk);				
+			if (modulesArgFromFile) {
+				try {
+					var modulesFile = File.createTempFile("rascal-modules-" + i, ".txt");
+					modulesFile.deleteOnExit();
+
+					// Write all module paths to a file
+					try (IValueOutputStream w = new IValueOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(modulesFile), vf)) {
+						w.write(chunk);
+					}
+
+					var modulesFileLoc = URIUtil.assumeCorrectLocation(modulesFile.toURI().toString());
+					chunkArgs.remove("modules");
+					chunkArgs.put("modulesFileLoc", modulesFileLoc);
+					chunkArgs.put("readModulesFromFile", vf.bool(true));
+				} catch (IOException e) {
+					err.println("Could not write module locations to file; passing as arguments instead.");
+					chunkArgs.put("modules", chunk);
+				}
+			} else {
+				chunkArgs.put("modules", chunk);
+			}
 			chunkArgs.put("bin", chunkBin);
 
 			workers.add(exec.submit(() -> {