diff --git a/nix/buildLeanPackage.nix b/nix/buildLeanPackage.nix
index 9ff94f26c8..d2437ba931 100644
--- a/nix/buildLeanPackage.nix
+++ b/nix/buildLeanPackage.nix
@@ -185,7 +185,6 @@ in rec {
     isExecutable = true;
     srcRoot = fullSrc;  # use root flake.nix in case of Lean repo
     inherit bash nix srcTarget srcArgs;
-    leanpkg = lean;
   };
   lean-dev = symlinkJoin { name = "lean-dev"; paths = [ lean-bin-dev leanpkg-dev ]; };
   emacs-dev = makeEmacsWrapper "emacs-dev" lean-dev;
diff --git a/nix/leanpkg-dev.in b/nix/leanpkg-dev.in
index 0a5b6d6385..75e1e3856b 100644
--- a/nix/leanpkg-dev.in
+++ b/nix/leanpkg-dev.in
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 set -euo pipefail
 
-[[ $# -gt 0 && "$1" == print-paths && ( -f flake.nix || -d Lean && -f ../flake.nix || ! -f leanpkg.toml ) ]] || exec @leanpkg@/bin/leanpkg "$@"
+[[ $# -gt 0 && "$1" == print-paths ]] || { echo "This is just a simple Nix adapter for `leanpkg print-paths`. Please use the `leanpkg` attribute for the real thing."; exit 1; }
 shift
 deps="$@"
 root=.
@@ -15,6 +15,6 @@ args=()
 for dep in $deps; do
     target="$target.\"$dep\""
 done
-# -v only has "built ...", but "-vv" is a bit too verbose
 echo "Building dependencies..." >&2
+# -v only has "built ...", but "-vv" is a bit too verbose
 @nix@/bin/nix run "$target" ${args[*]} -v