diff --git a/docs/release-notes/rl-2505.md b/docs/release-notes/rl-2505.md
index 588ce5b47..e73401e5c 100644
--- a/docs/release-notes/rl-2505.md
+++ b/docs/release-notes/rl-2505.md
@@ -22,6 +22,23 @@ This release has the following notable changes:
   tests are available through a Nix Flake file inside the `tests`
   directory. See [](#sec-tests) for example commands.
 
+- The Home Manager NixOS module now supports
+  [home-manager.users](#nixos-opt-home-manager.users) entries that do not have
+  corresponding `users.users.<name>` entries, making it easier to provide Home
+  Manager configurations for users managed through external identity management
+  systems.  To take advantage of this, such users must have their
+  [](#opt-home.username) and [](#opt-home.homeDirectory) attributes set to
+  high-precedence values with `lib.mkForce` or similar, overriding the defaults
+  that pull from, respectively, `users.users.<name>.name` and
+  `users.users.<name>.home`.
+
+- The Home Manager NixOS module option
+  [home-manager.useUserPackages](#nixos-opt-home-manager.useUserPackages) now
+  sets the default value of the newly-introduced per-user
+  [](#opt-home.useUserPackages) option, making it possible to define a policy
+  on the use of `users.users.<name>.packages` for package installation, and to
+  override that policy on a user-specific basis.
+
 ## State Version Changes {#sec-release-25.05-state-version-changes}
 
 The state version in this release includes the changes below. These
diff --git a/modules/home-environment.nix b/modules/home-environment.nix
index 9d792ca31..3a110c3e9 100644
--- a/modules/home-environment.nix
+++ b/modules/home-environment.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
+{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }@args:
 
 let
   inherit (lib) literalExpression mkOption types;
@@ -500,6 +500,21 @@ in
         Whether to make programs use XDG directories whenever supported.
       '';
     };
+
+    home.useUserPackages = mkOption {
+      type = types.bool;
+      default = args.nixosConfig.home-manager.useUserPackages or false;
+      defaultText = lib.literalExpression "home-manager.useUserPackages";
+      description = ''
+        Enable installation of user packages through the
+        {option}`users.users.<name>.packages` option.
+
+        ::: {.warning}
+        This option is specific to NixOS configurations and has no effect
+        elsewhere.
+        :::
+      '';
+    };
   };
 
   config = {
@@ -521,6 +536,7 @@ in
         releaseMismatch =
           config.home.enableNixpkgsReleaseCheck
           && hmRelease != nixpkgsRelease;
+        wronglyUsingUserPackages = cfg.useUserPackages && (!(args ?  nixosConfig));
       in
         lib.optional releaseMismatch ''
           You are using
@@ -537,7 +553,11 @@ in
             home.enableNixpkgsReleaseCheck = false;
 
           to your configuration.
-        '';
+        ''
+        ++ lib.optional wronglyUsingUserPackages
+            "You have enabled `home.useUserPackages`, but this option has no effect outside of NixOS configurations.";
+
+
 
     home.username =
       lib.mkIf (lib.versionOlder config.home.stateVersion "20.09")
diff --git a/nixos/common.nix b/nixos/common.nix
index 05931ad60..fd0383cdc 100644
--- a/nixos/common.nix
+++ b/nixos/common.nix
@@ -10,6 +10,27 @@ let
 
   extendedLib = import ../modules/lib/stdlib-extended.nix lib;
 
+  usersUsingUserPackages =
+    lib.filterAttrs (_username: usercfg: usercfg.home.useUserPackages)
+    cfg.users;
+
+  # `defaultOverridePriority` (and its legacy counterpart `defaultPriority`)
+  # represents the priority of option definitions that do not explicity specify
+  # a priority; that is, definitions of the form `{ foo = "bar"; }`.
+  #
+  # Setting an option with `mkUserDefault` permits the module system to resolve
+  # the so-defined option's priority without evaluating its value.  We use this
+  # to define `home.username` and `home.homeDirectory` at the default priority,
+  # while also allowing consumers to override these values with `mkForce`, and,
+  # crucially, allowing consumers to define `home-manager.users` entries
+  # **without those users needing to have corresponding entries in
+  # `config.users.users`**.
+  #
+  # In other respects, `{ foo = mkUserDefault "bar"; }` quacks like
+  # `{ foo = "bar"; }`.
+  mkUserDefault = lib.mkOverride
+    (lib.modules.defaultOverridePriority or lib.modules.defaultPriority);
+
   hmModule = types.submoduleWith {
     description = "Home Manager module";
     class = "homeManager";
@@ -19,7 +40,7 @@ let
       modulesPath = builtins.toString ../modules;
     } // cfg.extraSpecialArgs;
     modules = [
-      ({ name, ... }: {
+      ({ name, ... }@usercfg: {
         imports = import ../modules/modules.nix {
           inherit pkgs;
           lib = extendedLib;
@@ -28,10 +49,11 @@ let
 
         config = {
           submoduleSupport.enable = true;
-          submoduleSupport.externalPackageInstall = cfg.useUserPackages;
+          submoduleSupport.externalPackageInstall =
+            usercfg.config.home.useUserPackages;
 
-          home.username = config.users.users.${name}.name;
-          home.homeDirectory = config.users.users.${name}.home;
+          home.username = mkUserDefault config.users.users.${name}.name;
+          home.homeDirectory = mkUserDefault config.users.users.${name}.home;
 
           # Forward `nix.enable` from the OS configuration. The
           # conditional is to check whether nix-darwin is new enough
@@ -52,8 +74,8 @@ let
 in {
   options.home-manager = {
     useUserPackages = mkEnableOption ''
-      installation of user packages through the
-      {option}`users.users.<name>.packages` option'';
+      the per-user option {option}`home-manager.users.<name>.useUserPackages`
+      by default'';
 
     useGlobalPkgs = mkEnableOption ''
       using the system configuration's `pkgs`
@@ -104,10 +126,10 @@ in {
   };
 
   config = (lib.mkMerge [
-    # Fix potential recursion when configuring home-manager users based on values in users.users #594
-    (mkIf (cfg.useUserPackages && cfg.users != { }) {
+    (mkIf (usersUsingUserPackages != { }) {
       users.users = (lib.mapAttrs
-        (_username: usercfg: { packages = [ usercfg.home.path ]; }) cfg.users);
+        (_username: usercfg: { packages = [ usercfg.home.path ]; })
+        usersUsingUserPackages);
       environment.pathsToLink = [ "/etc/profile.d" ];
     })
     (mkIf (cfg.users != { }) {
diff --git a/nixos/default.nix b/nixos/default.nix
index ee973146c..8f0c062d1 100644
--- a/nixos/default.nix
+++ b/nixos/default.nix
@@ -16,19 +16,22 @@ in {
       home-manager = {
         extraSpecialArgs.nixosConfig = config;
 
-        sharedModules = [{
-          key = "home-manager#nixos-shared-module";
+        sharedModules = [
+          ({ ... }@usercfg: {
+            key = "home-manager#nixos-shared-module";
 
-          config = {
-            # The per-user directory inside /etc/profiles is not known by
-            # fontconfig by default.
-            fonts.fontconfig.enable = lib.mkDefault
-              (cfg.useUserPackages && config.fonts.fontconfig.enable);
+            config = {
+              # The per-user directory inside /etc/profiles is not known by
+              # fontconfig by default.
+              fonts.fontconfig.enable = lib.mkDefault
+                (usercfg.config.home.useUserPackages != { }
+                  && config.fonts.fontconfig.enable);
 
-            # Inherit glibcLocales setting from NixOS.
-            i18n.glibcLocales = lib.mkDefault config.i18n.glibcLocales;
-          };
-        }];
+              # Inherit glibcLocales setting from NixOS.
+              i18n.glibcLocales = lib.mkDefault config.i18n.glibcLocales;
+            };
+          })
+        ];
       };
     }
     (lib.mkIf (cfg.users != { }) {
diff --git a/tests/integration/nixos/basics.nix b/tests/integration/nixos/basics.nix
index 4b7cbcf8d..225339a54 100644
--- a/tests/integration/nixos/basics.nix
+++ b/tests/integration/nixos/basics.nix
@@ -1,94 +1,184 @@
-{ pkgs, ... }:
+{ lib, pkgs, ... }:
 
 {
   name = "nixos-basics";
   meta.maintainers = [ pkgs.lib.maintainers.rycee ];
 
-  nodes.machine = { ... }: {
-    imports = [ ../../../nixos ]; # Import the HM NixOS module.
+  nodes.machine = { config, pkgs, ... }:
+    let inherit (config.home-manager.users) bob;
+    in {
+      imports = [ ../../../nixos ]; # Import the HM NixOS module.
 
-    virtualisation.memorySize = 2048;
+      security.pam.services = {
+        chpasswd = { };
+        passwd = { };
+      };
 
-    users.users.alice = {
-      isNormalUser = true;
-      description = "Alice Foobar";
+      system.activationScripts.addBobUser = lib.fullDepEntry ''
+        ${pkgs.shadow}/bin/useradd \
+          --comment 'Manually-created user' \
+          --create-home --no-user-group \
+          --gid ${lib.escapeShellArg config.users.groups.users.name} \
+          --home-dir ${lib.escapeShellArg bob.home.homeDirectory} \
+          --no-user-group \
+          --shell ${
+            lib.escapeShellArg (lib.getExe config.users.defaultUserShell)
+          } \
+          ${lib.escapeShellArg bob.home.username}
+      '' [ "groups" "users" ];
+
+      virtualisation.memorySize = 2048;
+
+      # To be able to add the `bob` account with `useradd`.
+      users.mutableUsers = true;
+
+      users.users.alice = {
+        isNormalUser = true;
+        description = "Alice Foobar";
+        uid = 1000;
+      };
+
+      home-manager.useUserPackages = true;
+
+      home-manager.users = let
+        common = {
+          home.stateVersion = "24.11";
+          home.file.test.text = "testfile";
+          home.packages = [ pkgs.hello ];
+          # Enable a light-weight systemd service.
+          services.pueue.enable = true;
+        };
+      in {
+        alice = common;
+
+        # User without corresponding entry in `users.users`.
+        bob = { name, ... }: {
+          imports = [ common ];
+          home.stateVersion = "24.11";
+          home.username = lib.mkForce name;
+          home.homeDirectory = lib.mkForce "/var/tmp/hm/home/bob";
+          home.useUserPackages = false;
+        };
+      };
+    };
+
+  testScript = { nodes, ... }:
+    let
+      inherit (nodes.machine.home-manager.users) alice bob;
       password = "foobar";
-      uid = 1000;
-    };
+    in ''
+      import pprint
+      from contextlib import contextmanager
+      from typing import Callable, Dict, Optional
 
-    home-manager.users.alice = { ... }: {
-      home.stateVersion = "24.11";
-      home.file.test.text = "testfile";
-      # Enable a light-weight systemd service.
-      services.pueue.enable = true;
-    };
-  };
+      def wait_for_unit_properties(
+        machine: Machine, unit: str, check: Callable[[Dict[str, str]], Dict[str, Optional[str]]], user: Optional[str] = None, timeout: int = 900,
+      ) -> None:
+        def unit_has_properties(_):
+          info = machine.get_unit_info(unit, user)
+          mismatches = check(info)
+          if mismatches == {}:
+            return True
+          else:
+            machine.log(f"unit {unit} has unexpected properties {pprint.pformat(mismatches)}")
+            return False
 
-  testScript = ''
-    def login_as_alice():
-      machine.wait_until_tty_matches("1", "login: ")
-      machine.send_chars("alice\n")
-      machine.wait_until_tty_matches("1", "Password: ")
-      machine.send_chars("foobar\n")
-      machine.wait_until_tty_matches("1", "alice\\@machine")
+        with machine.nested(f"waiting for unit {unit} to satisfy expected properties"):
+          retry(unit_has_properties, timeout)
 
-    def logout_alice():
-      machine.send_chars("exit\n")
+      def wait_for_oneshot_successful_completion(
+        machine: Machine, unit: str, user: Optional[str] = None, timeout: int = 900
+      ) -> None:
+        def unit_is_successfully_completed_oneshot(info: Dict[str, str]) -> Dict[str, Optional[str]]:
+          assert "Type" in info, f"unit {unit}'s properties include 'Type'"
+          assert info["Type"] == "oneshot", f"expected unit {unit}'s 'Type' to be 'oneshot'; got {info['Type']}"
 
-    def alice_cmd(cmd):
-      return f"su -l alice --shell /bin/sh -c $'export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$UID ; {cmd}'"
+          props = ["ActiveState", "Result", "SubState"]
 
-    def succeed_as_alice(cmd):
-      return machine.succeed(alice_cmd(cmd))
+          if all([prop in info for prop in props]):
+            if "RemainAfterExit" in info and info["RemainAfterExit"] == "yes":
+              if info["ActiveState"] == "active" and info["Result"] == "success" and info["SubState"] == "exited":
+                return {}
+            elif info["ActiveState"] == "inactive" and info["Result"] == "success" and info["SubState"] == "dead":
+              return {}
 
-    def fail_as_alice(cmd):
-      return machine.fail(alice_cmd(cmd))
+          return {prop: info.get(prop) for prop in props}
 
-    start_all()
+        return wait_for_unit_properties(
+          machine, unit, unit_is_successfully_completed_oneshot, user=user, timeout=timeout
+        )
 
-    machine.wait_for_console_text("Finished Home Manager environment for alice.")
+      @contextmanager
+      def user_login(machine: Machine, user: str, password: str):
+        machine.wait_until_tty_matches("1", "login: ")
+        machine.send_chars(f"{user}\n")
+        machine.wait_until_tty_matches("1", "Password: ")
+        machine.send_chars(f"{password}\n")
+        machine.wait_until_tty_matches("1", f"{user}\\@{machine.name}")
 
-    with subtest("Home Manager file"):
-      # The file should be linked with the expected content.
-      path = "/home/alice/test"
-      machine.succeed(f"test -L {path}")
-      actual = machine.succeed(f"cat {path}")
-      expected = "testfile"
-      assert actual == expected, f"expected {path} to contain {expected}, but got {actual}"
+        try:
+          yield
+        finally:
+          machine.send_chars("exit\n")
 
-    with subtest("Pueue service"):
-      login_as_alice()
+      def cmd_for_user(user: str, cmd: str) -> str:
+        return f"su -l {user} --shell /bin/sh -c $'export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$UID ; {cmd}'"
 
-      actual = succeed_as_alice("pueue status")
-      expected = "running"
-      assert expected in actual, f"expected pueue status to contain {expected}, but got {actual}"
+      def succeed_as_user(user: str, cmd: str) -> str:
+        return machine.succeed(cmd_for_user(user, cmd))
 
-      # Shut down pueue, then run the activation again. Afterwards, the service
-      # should be running.
-      machine.succeed("systemctl --user -M alice@.host stop pueued.service")
+      def fail_as_user(user: str, cmd: str) -> str:
+        return machine.fail(cmd_for_user(user, cmd))
 
-      fail_as_alice("pueue status")
+      start_all()
 
-      machine.systemctl("restart home-manager-alice.service")
-      machine.wait_for_console_text("Finished Home Manager environment for alice.")
+      for user in ["${alice.home.username}", "${bob.home.username}"]:
+        user_hm_unit = f"home-manager-{user}.service"
+        wait_for_oneshot_successful_completion(machine, user_hm_unit)
 
-      actual = succeed_as_alice("pueue status")
-      expected = "running"
-      assert expected in actual, f"expected pueue status to contain {expected}, but got {actual}"
+        machine.succeed(f"echo '{user}:${password}' | ${pkgs.shadow}/bin/chpasswd")
 
-      logout_alice()
+        with subtest(f"Home Manager file (user {user})"):
+          # The file should be linked with the expected content.
+          path = f"~{user}/test"
+          machine.succeed(f"test -L {path}")
+          actual = machine.succeed(f"cat {path}")
+          expected = "testfile"
+          assert actual == expected, f"expected {path} to contain {expected}, but got {actual}"
 
-    with subtest("GC root and profile"):
-      # There should be a GC root and Home Manager profile and they should point
-      # to the same path in the Nix store.
-      gcroot = "/home/alice/.local/state/home-manager/gcroots/current-home"
-      gcrootTarget = machine.succeed(f"readlink {gcroot}")
+        with subtest(f"Command from `home.packages` (user {user})"):
+          succeed_as_user(user, "hello")
 
-      profile = "/home/alice/.local/state/nix/profiles"
-      profileTarget = machine.succeed(f"readlink {profile}/home-manager")
-      profile1Target = machine.succeed(f"readlink {profile}/{profileTarget}")
+        with subtest(f"Pueue service (user {user})"):
+          with user_login(machine, user, "${password}"):
+            actual = succeed_as_user(user, "pueue status")
+            expected = "running"
+            assert expected in actual, f"expected pueue status to contain {expected}, but got {actual}"
 
-      assert gcrootTarget == profile1Target, \
-        f"expected GC root and profile to point to same, but pointed to {gcrootTarget} and {profile1Target}"
-  '';
+            # Shut down pueue, then run the activation again. Afterwards, the
+            # service should be running.
+            machine.succeed(f"systemctl --user -M {user}@.host stop pueued.service")
+
+            fail_as_user(user, "pueue status")
+
+            machine.systemctl(f"restart {user_hm_unit}")
+            wait_for_oneshot_successful_completion(machine, user_hm_unit)
+
+            actual = succeed_as_user(user, "pueue status")
+            expected = "running"
+            assert expected in actual, f"expected pueue status to contain {expected}, but got {actual}"
+
+        with subtest(f"GC root and profile (user {user})"):
+          # There should be a GC root and Home Manager profile and they should
+          # point to the same path in the Nix store.
+          gcroot = f"~{user}/.local/state/home-manager/gcroots/current-home"
+          gcrootTarget = machine.succeed(f"readlink {gcroot}")
+
+          profile = f"~{user}/.local/state/nix/profiles"
+          profileTarget = machine.succeed(f"readlink {profile}/home-manager")
+          profile1Target = machine.succeed(f"readlink {profile}/{profileTarget}")
+
+          assert gcrootTarget == profile1Target, \
+            f"expected GC root and profile to point to same, but pointed to {gcrootTarget} and {profile1Target}"
+    '';
 }
diff --git a/tests/modules/home-environment/default.nix b/tests/modules/home-environment/default.nix
index c38ad5ce5..bdc10ca82 100644
--- a/tests/modules/home-environment/default.nix
+++ b/tests/modules/home-environment/default.nix
@@ -2,4 +2,5 @@
   home-session-path = ./session-path.nix;
   home-session-search-variables = ./session-search-variables.nix;
   home-session-variables = ./session-variables.nix;
+  home-use-user-packages = ./use-user-packages.nix;
 }
diff --git a/tests/modules/home-environment/use-user-packages.nix b/tests/modules/home-environment/use-user-packages.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..747eb14de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/modules/home-environment/use-user-packages.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+{
+  home.useUserPackages = true;
+
+  test.asserts.warnings.expected = [
+    "You have enabled `home.useUserPackages`, but this option has no effect outside of NixOS configurations."
+  ];
+}