diff --git a/doc/manual/package.nix b/doc/manual/package.nix
index 81061b7a1..05368e34e 100644
--- a/doc/manual/package.nix
+++ b/doc/manual/package.nix
@@ -58,8 +58,8 @@ mkMesonDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     "man"
   ];
 
-  # Hack for sake of the dev shell
-  passthru.externalNativeBuildInputs = [
+  nativeBuildInputs = [
+    nix-cli
     meson
     ninja
     (lib.getBin lowdown-unsandboxed)
@@ -78,10 +78,6 @@ mkMesonDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     changelog-d
   ];
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = finalAttrs.passthru.externalNativeBuildInputs ++ [
-    nix-cli
-  ];
-
   preConfigure = ''
     chmod u+w ./.version
     echo ${finalAttrs.version} > ./.version
diff --git a/src/json-schema-checks/package.nix b/src/json-schema-checks/package.nix
index 5365fe75e..609d396be 100644
--- a/src/json-schema-checks/package.nix
+++ b/src/json-schema-checks/package.nix
@@ -34,15 +34,11 @@ mkMesonDerivation (finalAttrs: {
 
   outputs = [ "out" ];
 
-  passthru.externalNativeBuildInputs = [
-    jsonschema
-  ];
-
   nativeBuildInputs = [
     meson
     ninja
-  ]
-  ++ finalAttrs.passthru.externalNativeBuildInputs;
+    jsonschema
+  ];
 
   doCheck = true;
 
diff --git a/src/kaitai-struct-checks/package.nix b/src/kaitai-struct-checks/package.nix
index 97d56aabd..a466441d3 100644
--- a/src/kaitai-struct-checks/package.nix
+++ b/src/kaitai-struct-checks/package.nix
@@ -37,7 +37,15 @@ mkMesonDerivation (finalAttrs: {
 
   outputs = [ "out" ];
 
-  passthru.externalNativeBuildInputs = [
+  buildInputs = [
+    gtest
+    kaitai-struct-cpp-stl-runtime
+  ];
+
+  nativeBuildInputs = [
+    meson
+    ninja
+    pkg-config
     # This can go away when we bump up to 25.11
     (kaitai-struct-compiler.overrideAttrs (finalAttrs: {
       version = "0.11";
@@ -48,20 +56,6 @@ mkMesonDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     }))
   ];
 
-  passthru.externalBuildInputs = [
-    gtest
-    kaitai-struct-cpp-stl-runtime
-  ];
-
-  buildInputs = finalAttrs.passthru.externalBuildInputs;
-
-  nativeBuildInputs = [
-    meson
-    ninja
-    pkg-config
-  ]
-  ++ finalAttrs.passthru.externalNativeBuildInputs;
-
   doCheck = true;
 
   mesonCheckFlags = [ "--print-errorlogs" ];
diff --git a/src/libexpr/package.nix b/src/libexpr/package.nix
index a67a8cc49..d0aef34e9 100644
--- a/src/libexpr/package.nix
+++ b/src/libexpr/package.nix
@@ -70,11 +70,6 @@ mkMesonLibrary (finalAttrs: {
     nix-util
     nix-store
     nix-fetchers
-  ]
-  ++ finalAttrs.passthru.externalPropagatedBuildInputs;
-
-  # Hack for sake of the dev shell
-  passthru.externalPropagatedBuildInputs = [
     boost
     nlohmann_json
   ]
diff --git a/src/libstore-tests/package.nix b/src/libstore-tests/package.nix
index 90e6af519..ac547aca3 100644
--- a/src/libstore-tests/package.nix
+++ b/src/libstore-tests/package.nix
@@ -42,20 +42,16 @@ mkMesonExecutable (finalAttrs: {
     (fileset.fileFilter (file: file.hasExt "hh") ./.)
   ];
 
-  # Hack for sake of the dev shell
-  passthru.externalBuildInputs = [
+  buildInputs = [
     sqlite
     rapidcheck
     gtest
-  ]
-  ++ lib.optionals withBenchmarks [
-    gbenchmark
-  ];
-
-  buildInputs = finalAttrs.passthru.externalBuildInputs ++ [
     nix-store
     nix-store-c
     nix-store-test-support
+  ]
+  ++ lib.optionals withBenchmarks [
+    gbenchmark
   ];
 
   mesonFlags = [
diff --git a/src/perl/package.nix b/src/perl/package.nix
index 10d84de77..96a41ae47 100644
--- a/src/perl/package.nix
+++ b/src/perl/package.nix
@@ -45,11 +45,6 @@ perl.pkgs.toPerlModule (
 
     buildInputs = [
       nix-store
-    ]
-    ++ finalAttrs.passthru.externalBuildInputs;
-
-    # Hack for sake of the dev shell
-    passthru.externalBuildInputs = [
       bzip2
       libsodium
     ];
diff --git a/tests/functional/package.nix b/tests/functional/package.nix
index 6830a9e58..b3b314a50 100644
--- a/tests/functional/package.nix
+++ b/tests/functional/package.nix
@@ -2,7 +2,16 @@
   lib,
   stdenv,
   mkMesonDerivation,
-  buildPackages,
+
+  meson,
+  ninja,
+  pkg-config,
+
+  jq,
+  git,
+  mercurial,
+  unixtools,
+  util-linux,
 
   nix-store,
   nix-expr,
@@ -37,17 +46,20 @@ mkMesonDerivation (
       ./.
     ];
 
-    # Hack for sake of the dev shell. Need to "manually splice" since
-    # this isn't a specially-recognized list of dependencies.
-    passthru.externalNativeBuildInputs = [
-      buildPackages.meson
-      buildPackages.ninja
-      buildPackages.pkg-config
+    nativeBuildInputs = [
+      meson
+      ninja
+      pkg-config
 
-      buildPackages.jq
-      buildPackages.git
-      buildPackages.mercurial
-      buildPackages.unixtools.script
+      jq
+      git
+      mercurial
+      unixtools.script
+
+      # Explicitly splice the hostHost variant to fix LLVM tests. The nix-cli
+      # has to be in PATH, but must come from the host context where it's built
+      # with libc++.
+      (nix-cli.__spliced.hostHost or nix-cli)
     ]
     ++ lib.optionals stdenv.hostPlatform.isLinux [
       # For various sandboxing tests that needs a statically-linked shell,
@@ -56,14 +68,7 @@ mkMesonDerivation (
       # For Overlay FS tests need `mount`, `umount`, and `unshare`.
       # For `script` command (ensuring a TTY)
       # TODO use `unixtools` to be precise over which executables instead?
-      buildPackages.util-linux
-    ];
-
-    nativeBuildInputs = finalAttrs.passthru.externalNativeBuildInputs ++ [
-      # Explicitly splice the hostHost variant to fix LLVM tests. The nix-cli
-      # has to be in PATH, but must come from the host context where it's built
-      # with libc++.
-      (nix-cli.__spliced.hostHost or nix-cli)
+      util-linux
     ];
 
     buildInputs = [