diff --git a/MODULE.bazel b/MODULE.bazel
index 7b8508d4b0..f9cd243bd0 100644
--- a/MODULE.bazel
+++ b/MODULE.bazel
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ bazel_dep(
     repo_name = "com_google_protobuf",
 )
 
-internal_deps = use_extension("//rust/private:extensions.bzl", "internal_deps")
+internal_deps = use_extension("//rust/private:extensions.bzl", "i")
 use_repo(
     internal_deps,
     "bazelci_rules",
diff --git a/rust/private/extensions.bzl b/rust/private/extensions.bzl
index 490008c5e9..c20905cf72 100644
--- a/rust/private/extensions.bzl
+++ b/rust/private/extensions.bzl
@@ -41,7 +41,9 @@ def _internal_deps_impl(module_ctx):
         root_module_direct_dev_deps = [],
     )
 
-internal_deps = module_extension(
+# This is named a single character to reduce the size of path names when running build scripts, to reduce the chance
+# of hitting the 260 character windows path name limit.
+i = module_extension(
     doc = "Dependencies for rules_rust",
     implementation = _internal_deps_impl,
 )