diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index c18fd2012891c..e3a0876c3a85f 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -2416,6 +2416,7 @@ version = "53.1.0"
 dependencies = [
  "arrow",
  "arrow-data",
+ "arrow-ipc",
  "arrow-ord",
  "arrow-schema",
  "async-trait",
diff --git a/benchmarks/results/main/clickbench_1.json b/benchmarks/results/main/clickbench_1.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..378687e8f8237
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmarks/results/main/clickbench_1.json
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+{
+  "queries": [
+    {
+      "iterations": [],
+      "query": "Query 36",
+      "start_time": 1768790964,
+      "success": false
+    }
+  ],
+  "context": {
+    "arguments": [
+      "clickbench",
+      "--iterations",
+      "5",
+      "--path",
+      "/Users/kosiew/GitHub/datafusion/benchmarks/data/hits.parquet",
+      "--queries-path",
+      "/Users/kosiew/GitHub/datafusion/benchmarks/queries/clickbench/queries",
+      "-o",
+      "/Users/kosiew/GitHub/datafusion/benchmarks/results/main/clickbench_1.json",
+      "--query",
+      "36"
+    ],
+    "benchmark_version": "52.0.0",
+    "datafusion_version": "52.0.0",
+    "num_cpus": 10,
+    "start_time": 1768790964
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/datafusion-cli/Cargo.toml b/datafusion-cli/Cargo.toml
index 414b8c6444869..baf8e2c297fd2 100644
--- a/datafusion-cli/Cargo.toml
+++ b/datafusion-cli/Cargo.toml
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ testcontainers-modules = { workspace = true, features = ["minio"] }
 # feature unification with dependencies
 serde_json = { workspace = true, features = ["preserve_order"] }
 
-# Required because we pull serde_json with a feature to get consistent pg display,
-# but its not directly used.
+# serde_json is pulled with a feature to get
+# consistent pg display, but is not directly used in this crate.
 [package.metadata.cargo-machete]
-ignored = "serde_json"
+ignored = ["serde_json"]
diff --git a/datafusion/physical-plan/Cargo.toml b/datafusion/physical-plan/Cargo.toml
index 374fc275a06e0..cc3fbec5589de 100644
--- a/datafusion/physical-plan/Cargo.toml
+++ b/datafusion/physical-plan/Cargo.toml
@@ -49,6 +49,14 @@ name = "datafusion_physical_plan"
 [dependencies]
 arrow = { workspace = true }
 arrow-data = { workspace = true }
+# Feature-only dep used only via the `arrow::ipc` re-export (there is no direct
+# `use arrow_ipc` in this crate): lz4 and zstd codec support required by
+# IPCStreamWriter in spill/mod.rs. These features must stay in sync with the
+# SpillCompression variants in datafusion-common. Declaring the dependency here
+# makes the contract explicit and local to the crate that owns spill, preventing
+# silent regressions if workspace-level arrow-ipc features are narrowed (see
+# #21917 for the documented regression guard around this coupling).
+arrow-ipc = { workspace = true, features = ["lz4", "zstd"] }
 arrow-ord = { workspace = true }
 arrow-schema = { workspace = true }
 async-trait = { workspace = true }
@@ -87,6 +95,11 @@ tokio = { workspace = true, features = [
     "parking_lot",
 ] }
 
+# `arrow-ipc` is used only through the `arrow::ipc` re-export, so cargo-machete
+# reports it as unused even though this crate relies on its codec features.
+[package.metadata.cargo-machete]
+ignored = ["arrow-ipc"]
+
 [[bench]]
 harness = false
 name = "partial_ordering"
diff --git a/datafusion/physical-plan/src/spill/mod.rs b/datafusion/physical-plan/src/spill/mod.rs
index 51e59318e2d94..f5afce50d28f5 100644
--- a/datafusion/physical-plan/src/spill/mod.rs
+++ b/datafusion/physical-plan/src/spill/mod.rs
@@ -290,6 +290,17 @@ struct IPCStreamWriter {
 
 impl IPCStreamWriter {
     /// Create new writer
+    ///
+    /// # Codec contract
+    ///
+    /// `arrow-ipc` must be compiled with the `lz4` and `zstd` features
+    /// (declared explicitly in `datafusion-physical-plan/Cargo.toml`). If
+    /// those features are absent, `try_with_compression` will return an
+    /// error at runtime for [`SpillCompression::Lz4Frame`] and
+    /// [`SpillCompression::Zstd`] variants. The Cargo dependency keeps this
+    /// contract local and build-visible during Cargo feature resolution,
+    /// rather than relying solely on workspace-level feature unification;
+    /// see #21917.
     pub fn new(
         path: &Path,
         schema: &Schema,
diff --git a/datafusion/sqllogictest/Cargo.toml b/datafusion/sqllogictest/Cargo.toml
index 1159b7f3b703a..e2ffe1415a1fb 100644
--- a/datafusion/sqllogictest/Cargo.toml
+++ b/datafusion/sqllogictest/Cargo.toml
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ harness = false
 name = "sqllogictests"
 path = "bin/sqllogictests.rs"
 
-# Required because we pull serde_json with a feature to get consistent pg display,
-# but its not directly used.
+# serde_json is pulled with a feature to get
+# consistent pg display, but is not directly used in this crate.
 [package.metadata.cargo-machete]
-ignored = "serde_json"
+ignored = ["serde_json"]