diff --git a/default.nix b/default.nix
index 9748d1e3..a620ec9f 100644
--- a/default.nix
+++ b/default.nix
@@ -1,11 +1,23 @@
-{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {}, configuration ? <darwin-config> }:
+{ nixpkgs ? <nixpkgs>, configuration ? <darwin-config>, system ? builtins.currentSystem
+, pkgs ? import nixpkgs { inherit system; }
+}:
 
 let
 
+  packages = { config, lib, pkgs, ... }: {
+    config = {
+      _module.args.pkgs = import nixpkgs {
+        inherit system;
+        inherit (config.nixpkgs) config;
+      };
+    };
+  };
+
   eval = pkgs.lib.evalModules {
     check = true;
     modules =
       [ configuration
+        packages
         ./modules/alias.nix
         ./modules/system
         ./modules/system/activation-scripts.nix
@@ -33,12 +45,11 @@ let
       ];
   };
 
-  system = eval.config.system.build.toplevel;
-
 in
 
 {
   inherit (eval.config._module.args) pkgs;
   inherit (eval) options config;
-  inherit system;
+
+  system = eval.config.system.build.toplevel;
 }
diff --git a/modules/nix/nixpkgs.nix b/modules/nix/nixpkgs.nix
index 7bef9eec..2b2ce49a 100644
--- a/modules/nix/nixpkgs.nix
+++ b/modules/nix/nixpkgs.nix
@@ -67,9 +67,7 @@ in
 
   config = {
 
-    _module.args.pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {
-      inherit (config.nixpkgs) config;
-    };
+    # _module.args.pkgs is defined in ../../default.nix
 
   };
 }
diff --git a/release.nix b/release.nix
index 2dea880b..5a78f319 100644
--- a/release.nix
+++ b/release.nix
@@ -5,10 +5,12 @@
 
 let
 
-  inherit (release) mapTestOn packagePlatforms pkgs;
+  inherit (release) mapTestOn packagePlatforms pkgs all linux darwin;
+
+  mapPlatforms = systems: pkgs.lib.mapAttrs (n: v: systems);
 
   genExample = configuration: pkgs.lib.genAttrs [ "x86_64-darwin" ] (system:
-    (import ./. { pkgs = import nixpkgs { inherit system; }; inherit configuration; }).system
+    (import ./. { inherit nixpkgs configuration system; }).system
   );
 
   release = import <nixpkgs/pkgs/top-level/release-lib.nix> {
@@ -17,7 +19,21 @@ let
   };
 
   packageSet = {
-    inherit (pkgs) stdenv bash zsh nix nix-repl vim tmux reattach-to-user-namespace;
+    # stdenv
+    inherit (pkgs)
+      autoconf automake bison bzip2 clang cmake coreutils cpio ed findutils flex gawk gettext gmp
+      gnugrep gnum4 gnumake gnused groff gzip help2man libcxx libcxxabi libedit libffi libtool
+      libxml2 llvm ncurses patch pcre perl pkgconfig python unzip xz zlib;
+    perlPackages = { inherit (pkgs.perlPackages) LocaleGettext; };
+    darwin = {
+      inherit (pkgs.darwin)
+        CF CarbonHeaders CommonCrypto Csu IOKit Libinfo Libm Libnotify Libsystem adv_cmds
+        architecture bootstrap_cmds bsdmake cctools configd copyfile dyld eap8021x launchd
+        libclosure libdispatch libiconv libpthread libresolv libutil objc4 ppp removefile xnu;
+    };
+
+    inherit (pkgs)
+      stdenv bash zsh nix nix-repl nano vim emacs tmux reattach-to-user-namespace;
   };
 
   jobs = {
@@ -27,17 +43,27 @@ let
       constituents =
         [ jobs.stdenv.x86_64-darwin
           jobs.bash.x86_64-darwin
+          jobs.zsh.x86_64-darwin
+          jobs.nix-repl.x86_64-darwin
+          jobs.nix.x86_64-darwin
+          jobs.reattach-to-user-namespace.x86_64-darwin
+          jobs.tmux.x86_64-darwin
+          jobs.nano.x86_64-darwin
+          jobs.vim.x86_64-darwin
+          jobs.emacs.x86_64-darwin
           jobs.examples.lnl.x86_64-darwin
           jobs.examples.simple.x86_64-darwin
         ];
-      meta.description = "Release-critical builds for the Nixpkgs unstable channel";
+      meta.description = "Release-critical builds for the darwin unstable channel";
     };
 
     examples.lnl = genExample ./modules/examples/lnl.nix;
     examples.simple = genExample ./modules/examples/simple.nix;
 
   }
-  // (mapTestOn (packagePlatforms packageSet));
+  // (mapTestOn (packagePlatforms packageSet))
+  // (mapTestOn { perlPackages = mapPlatforms all packageSet.perlPackages; })
+  // (mapTestOn { darwin = mapPlatforms darwin packageSet.darwin; });
 
 in