diff --git a/vortex-duckdb/Cargo.toml b/vortex-duckdb/Cargo.toml
index 7dc239a4b1a..b6896910a89 100644
--- a/vortex-duckdb/Cargo.toml
+++ b/vortex-duckdb/Cargo.toml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ links = "duckdb"
 [lib]
 name = "vortex_duckdb"
 path = "src/lib.rs"
-crate-type = ["staticlib", "cdylib", "rlib"]
+crate-type = ["rlib"]
 
 [dependencies]
 async-fs = { workspace = true }
diff --git a/vortex-duckdb/include/vortex.h b/vortex-duckdb/include/vortex.h
index 42edf13655c..57339009ba8 100644
--- a/vortex-duckdb/include/vortex.h
+++ b/vortex-duckdb/include/vortex.h
@@ -15,12 +15,6 @@
 extern "C" {
 #endif // __cplusplus
 
-extern void vortex_init_rust(duckdb_database db);
-
-extern const char *vortex_version_rust(void);
-
-extern const char *vortex_extension_version_rust(void);
-
 extern void duckdb_table_function_to_string(void *bind_data, duckdb_vx_string_map map);
 
 extern
diff --git a/vortex-duckdb/src/lib.rs b/vortex-duckdb/src/lib.rs
index b21801b4564..4a4d563e55b 100644
--- a/vortex-duckdb/src/lib.rs
+++ b/vortex-duckdb/src/lib.rs
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
 
 #![expect(clippy::missing_safety_doc)]
 
-use std::ffi::CStr;
 use std::ffi::c_char;
+use std::ffi::c_void;
 use std::sync::LazyLock;
 use std::sync::OnceLock;
 
@@ -79,19 +79,10 @@ pub fn initialize(db: &DatabaseRef) -> VortexResult<()> {
     db.register_copy_function()
 }
 
-/// Global symbol visibility in the Vortex extension:
-/// - Rust functions use C ABI with "_rust" suffix (e.g., vortex_init_rust)
-/// - C++ wrapper functions have the expected name without suffix (e.g., vortex_init)
-/// - C++ wrappers are annotated with DUCKDB_EXTENSION_API to ensure global visibility
-/// - C++ wrappers call the corresponding Rust functions
-///
-/// This ensures DuckDB can find the symbols when loading the extension.
-///
-/// The DuckDB extension ABI initialization function.
-#[unsafe(no_mangle)]
-pub unsafe extern "C" fn vortex_init_rust(db: cpp::duckdb_database) {
+/// Initialize the DuckDB extension from a raw DuckDB database pointer.
+pub unsafe fn initialize_extension_from_raw(db: *mut c_void) {
     init_tracing();
-    let database = unsafe { Database::borrow(db) };
+    let database = unsafe { Database::borrow(db.cast()) };
 
     database
         .register_vortex_scan_replacement()
@@ -99,20 +90,12 @@ pub unsafe extern "C" fn vortex_init_rust(db: cpp::duckdb_database) {
     initialize(database).vortex_expect("Failed to initialize Vortex extension");
 }
 
-/// The DuckDB extension ABI version function.
-/// This function returns the version of the DuckDB library the extension is built against.
-#[unsafe(no_mangle)]
-pub extern "C" fn vortex_version_rust() -> *const c_char {
+/// Returns the version of the DuckDB library the extension is built against.
+pub fn duckdb_library_version() -> *const c_char {
     unsafe { cpp::duckdb_library_version() }
 }
 
-/// An additional function we export to expose the version of the extension itself to C++ code.
-#[unsafe(no_mangle)]
-pub extern "C" fn vortex_extension_version_rust() -> *const c_char {
-    // We do some fiddly macros here to get ourselves a _static_ C-style string.
-    // Otherwise, we'd be leaking memory.
-    unsafe {
-        CStr::from_bytes_with_nul_unchecked(concat!(env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION"), "\0").as_bytes())
-    }
-    .as_ptr()
+/// Returns the version of the Vortex DuckDB extension.
+pub fn extension_version() -> *const c_char {
+    concat!(env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION"), "\0").as_ptr().cast()
 }