diff --git a/vowpalwabbit/CMakeLists.txt b/vowpalwabbit/CMakeLists.txt
index cd3f6cd92..d5f41a11e 100644
--- a/vowpalwabbit/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/vowpalwabbit/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,9 +1,7 @@
-add_subdirectory(active_interactor)
 add_subdirectory(allreduce)
 if(VW_BUILD_VW_C_WRAPPER)
   add_subdirectory(c_wrapper)
 endif()
-add_subdirectory(cli)
 add_subdirectory(cache_parser)
 add_subdirectory(common)
 add_subdirectory(config)
@@ -17,7 +15,6 @@ add_subdirectory(json_parser)
 add_subdirectory(model_merger)
 add_subdirectory(slim)
 if(VW_FEAT_NETWORKING)
-  add_subdirectory(spanning_tree_bin)
   add_subdirectory(spanning_tree)
 endif()
 add_subdirectory(text_parser)