diff --git a/src/nix/flake.cc b/src/nix/flake.cc
index 04d4ec8eb..5e3510a38 100644
--- a/src/nix/flake.cc
+++ b/src/nix/flake.cc
@@ -1303,8 +1303,10 @@ struct CmdFlakeShow : FlakeCommand, MixJSON
                         try {
                             if (visitor.isDerivation())
                                 showDerivation();
-                            else
-                                throw Error("expected a derivation");
+                            else {
+                                auto name = visitor.getAttrPathStr(state->s.name);
+                                logger->warn(fmt("%s is not a derivation", name));
+                            }
                         } catch (IFDError & e) {
                             if (!json) {
                                 logger->cout(
diff --git a/tests/functional/flakes/show.sh b/tests/functional/flakes/show.sh
index a08db115a..0cdbdb8f2 100755
--- a/tests/functional/flakes/show.sh
+++ b/tests/functional/flakes/show.sh
@@ -107,3 +107,26 @@ in
 assert show_output.packages.${builtins.currentSystem}.default == { };
 true
 '
+
+
+# Test that nix keeps going even when packages.$SYSTEM contains not derivations
+cat >flake.nix <<EOF
+{
+  outputs = inputs: {
+    packages.$system = {
+      drv1 = import ./simple.nix;
+      not-a-derivation = 42;
+      drv2 = import ./simple.nix;
+    };
+  };
+}
+EOF
+nix flake show --json --all-systems > show-output.json
+# shellcheck disable=SC2016
+nix eval --impure --expr '
+let show_output = builtins.fromJSON (builtins.readFile ./show-output.json);
+in
+assert show_output.packages.${builtins.currentSystem}.not-a-derivation == {};
+true
+'
+