diff --git a/src/nix/why-depends.cc b/src/nix/why-depends.cc
index 285e3672236..72301749728 100644
--- a/src/nix/why-depends.cc
+++ b/src/nix/why-depends.cc
@@ -83,6 +83,17 @@ struct CmdWhyDepends : SourceExprCommand
     {
         auto package = parseInstallable(store, _package);
         auto packagePath = Installable::toStorePath(getEvalStore(), store, Realise::Outputs, operateOn, package);
+
+        /* We don't need to build `dependency`. We try to get the store
+         * path if it's already known, and if not, then it's not a dependency.
+         *
+         * Why? If `package` does depends on `dependency`, then getting the
+         * store path of `package` above necessitated having the store path
+         * of `dependency`. The contrapositive is, if the store path of
+         * `dependency` is not already known at this point (i.e. it's a CA
+         * derivation which hasn't been built), then `package` did not need it
+         * to build.
+         */
         auto dependency = parseInstallable(store, _dependency);
         auto derivedDependency = dependency->toDerivedPath();
         auto optDependencyPath = std::visit(overloaded {
diff --git a/tests/ca/why-depends.sh b/tests/ca/why-depends.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0c079f63b40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/ca/why-depends.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+source common.sh
+
+export NIX_TESTS_CA_BY_DEFAULT=1
+
+cd .. && source why-depends.sh