diff --git a/nix/buildLeanPackage.nix b/nix/buildLeanPackage.nix
index 7de6b49c85d2..5b9a91cf439f 100644
--- a/nix/buildLeanPackage.nix
+++ b/nix/buildLeanPackage.nix
@@ -68,8 +68,10 @@ with builtins; let
   depRoot = name: deps: mkBareDerivation {
     name = "${name}-depRoot";
     buildInputs = [ symlinkSearchPath ];
+    depList = lib.concatLines deps;
+    passAsFile = [ "depList" ];
     buildCommand = ''
-      symlinkSearchPath $out ${lib.concatStringsSep " " deps}
+      symlinkSearchPath $out $depListPath
     '';
   };
   srcRoot = src;