diff --git a/pkgs/pkgs-lib/default.nix b/pkgs/pkgs-lib/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1f74747d3113
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/pkgs-lib/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# pkgs-lib is for functions and values that can't be in lib because
+# they depend on some packages. This notably is *not* for supporting package
+# building, instead pkgs/build-support is the place for that.
+{ lib, pkgs }: {
+
+}
+
diff --git a/pkgs/pkgs-lib/tests/default.nix b/pkgs/pkgs-lib/tests/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..ee71596a1456
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/pkgs-lib/tests/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Call nix-build on this file to run all tests in this directory
+{ pkgs ? import ../../.. {} }:
+let
+in pkgs.linkFarm "nixpkgs-pkgs-lib-tests" [
+]
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 6427bb4bbc26..4fca1254bcd6 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -523,6 +523,9 @@ in
   #package writers
   writers = callPackage ../build-support/writers {};
 
+  # lib functions depending on pkgs
+  inherit (import ../pkgs-lib { inherit lib pkgs; });
+
   ### TOOLS
 
   _0x0 = callPackage ../tools/misc/0x0 { };
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/release.nix b/pkgs/top-level/release.nix
index c11858f09c8f..5fc6e91b3118 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/release.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/release.nix
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ let
 
       manual = import ../../doc { inherit pkgs nixpkgs; };
       lib-tests = import ../../lib/tests/release.nix { inherit pkgs; };
+      pkgs-lib-tests = import ../pkgs-lib/tests { inherit pkgs; };
 
       darwin-tested = if supportDarwin then pkgs.releaseTools.aggregate
         { name = "nixpkgs-darwin-${jobs.tarball.version}";
@@ -91,6 +92,7 @@ let
             [ jobs.tarball
               jobs.manual
               jobs.lib-tests
+              jobs.pkgs-lib-tests
               jobs.stdenv.x86_64-linux
               jobs.linux.x86_64-linux
               jobs.pandoc.x86_64-linux