diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/elpa.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/elpa.nix
index 7ac8d673346ae..5a8f0ab9e52c8 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/elpa.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/elpa.nix
@@ -3,26 +3,29 @@
 { lib, stdenv, emacs, texinfo, writeText }:
 
 let
-  handledArgs = [ "meta" ];
   genericBuild = import ./generic.nix { inherit lib stdenv emacs texinfo writeText; };
+  libBuildHelper = import ./lib-build-helper.nix;
 
 in
 
+libBuildHelper.extendMkDerivation' genericBuild (finalAttrs:
+
 { pname
-, version
-, src
+, dontUnpack ? true
 , meta ? {}
 , ...
 }@args:
 
-genericBuild ({
+{
+
+  elpa2nix = args.elpa2nix or ./elpa2nix.el;
 
-  dontUnpack = true;
+  inherit dontUnpack;
 
-  installPhase = ''
+  installPhase = args.installPhase or ''
     runHook preInstall
 
-    emacs --batch -Q -l ${./elpa2nix.el} \
+    emacs --batch -Q -l "$elpa2nix" \
         -f elpa2nix-install-package \
         "$src" "$out/share/emacs/site-lisp/elpa"
 
@@ -34,4 +37,4 @@ genericBuild ({
   } // meta;
 }
 
-// removeAttrs args handledArgs)
+)
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/generic.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/generic.nix
index 3b3298cd14685..3ff10ee865fb3 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/generic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/generic.nix
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@
 
 let
   inherit (lib) optionalAttrs;
-  handledArgs = [ "buildInputs" "nativeBuildInputs" "packageRequires" "propagatedUserEnvPkgs" "meta" ]
-    ++ lib.optionals (emacs.withNativeCompilation or false) [ "postInstall" ];
 
   setupHook = writeText "setup-hook.sh" ''
     source ${./emacs-funcs.sh}
@@ -21,13 +19,16 @@ let
     fi
   '';
 
+  libBuildHelper = import ./lib-build-helper.nix;
+
 in
 
-{ pname
-, version
-, buildInputs ? []
+libBuildHelper.extendMkDerivation' stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs:
+
+{ buildInputs ? []
 , nativeBuildInputs ? []
 , packageRequires ? []
+, propagatedBuildInputs ? []
 , propagatedUserEnvPkgs ? []
 , postInstall ? ""
 , meta ? {}
@@ -36,10 +37,10 @@ in
 , ...
 }@args:
 
-stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: ({
-  name = "emacs-${pname}-${finalAttrs.version}";
+{
+  name = args.name or "emacs-${finalAttrs.pname}-${finalAttrs.version}";
 
-  unpackCmd = ''
+  unpackCmd = args.unpackCmd or ''
     case "$curSrc" in
       *.el)
         # keep original source filename without the hash
@@ -55,14 +56,13 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: ({
     esac
   '';
 
-  buildInputs = packageRequires ++ buildInputs;
+  inherit packageRequires;
+  buildInputs = finalAttrs.packageRequires ++ buildInputs;
   nativeBuildInputs = [ emacs texinfo ] ++ nativeBuildInputs;
-  propagatedBuildInputs = packageRequires;
-  propagatedUserEnvPkgs = packageRequires ++ propagatedUserEnvPkgs;
-
-  inherit setupHook;
+  propagatedBuildInputs = finalAttrs.packageRequires ++ propagatedBuildInputs;
+  propagatedUserEnvPkgs = finalAttrs.packageRequires ++ propagatedUserEnvPkgs;
 
-  doCheck = false;
+  setupHook = args.setupHook or setupHook;
 
   meta = {
     broken = false;
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: ({
 
 // optionalAttrs (emacs.withNativeCompilation or false) {
 
-  addEmacsNativeLoadPath = true;
+  addEmacsNativeLoadPath = args.addEmacsNativeLoadPath or true;
 
   inherit turnCompilationWarningToError ignoreCompilationError;
 
@@ -97,4 +97,4 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: ({
   '' + postInstall;
 }
 
-// removeAttrs args handledArgs))
+)
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/lib-build-helper.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/lib-build-helper.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..23267f592359e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/lib-build-helper.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+{
+  extendMkDerivation' =
+    mkDerivationBase: attrsOverlay: fpargs:
+    (mkDerivationBase fpargs).overrideAttrs attrsOverlay;
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/melpa.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/melpa.nix
index 20f7e79eb683d..718a0c4d2c1c0 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/melpa.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/melpa.nix
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
 { lib, stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, emacs, texinfo, writeText }:
 
 let
-  handledArgs = [ "meta" "preUnpack" "postUnpack" ];
   genericBuild = import ./generic.nix { inherit lib stdenv emacs texinfo writeText; };
+  libBuildHelper = import ./lib-build-helper.nix;
 
   packageBuild = stdenv.mkDerivation {
     name = "package-build";
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ let
 
 in
 
+libBuildHelper.extendMkDerivation' genericBuild (finalAttrs:
+
 { /*
     pname: Nix package name without special symbols and without version or
     "emacs-" prefix.
@@ -51,7 +53,7 @@ in
     This will be written into the generated package but it is not needed during
     the build process.
   */
-, commit ? (args.src.rev or "unknown")
+, commit ? (finalAttrs.src.rev or "unknown")
   /*
     files: Optional recipe property specifying the files used to build the package.
     If null, do not set it in recipe, keeping the default upstream behaviour.
@@ -62,9 +64,9 @@ in
     recipe: Optional MELPA recipe.
     Default: a minimally functional recipe
   */
-, recipe ? (writeText "${pname}-recipe" ''
-    (${ename} :fetcher git :url ""
-              ${lib.optionalString (files != null) ":files ${files}"})
+, recipe ? (writeText "${finalAttrs.pname}-recipe" ''
+    (${finalAttrs.ename} :fetcher git :url ""
+              ${lib.optionalString (finalAttrs.files != null) ":files ${finalAttrs.files}"})
   '')
 , preUnpack ? ""
 , postUnpack ? ""
@@ -72,14 +74,16 @@ in
 , ...
 }@args:
 
-genericBuild ({
+{
+
+  elpa2nix = args.elpa2nix or ./elpa2nix.el;
+  melpa2nix = args.melpa2nix or ./melpa2nix.el;
 
-  elpa2nix = ./elpa2nix.el;
-  melpa2nix = ./melpa2nix.el;
+  inherit commit ename files recipe;
 
-  inherit packageBuild commit ename recipe;
+  packageBuild = args.packageBuild or packageBuild;
 
-  melpaVersion =
+  melpaVersion = args.melpaVersion or (
     let
       parsed = lib.flip builtins.match version
         # match <version>-unstable-YYYY-MM-DD format
@@ -90,7 +94,7 @@ genericBuild ({
     in
     if unstableVersionInNixFormat
     then date + "." + time
-    else version;
+    else finalAttrs.version);
 
   preUnpack = ''
     mkdir -p "$NIX_BUILD_TOP/recipes"
@@ -108,7 +112,7 @@ genericBuild ({
     ln -s "$NIX_BUILD_TOP/$sourceRoot" "$NIX_BUILD_TOP/working/$ename"
   '' + postUnpack;
 
-  buildPhase = ''
+  buildPhase = args.buildPhase or ''
     runHook preBuild
 
     cd "$NIX_BUILD_TOP"
@@ -122,7 +126,7 @@ genericBuild ({
     runHook postBuild
     '';
 
-  installPhase = ''
+  installPhase = args.installPhase or ''
     runHook preInstall
 
     archive="$NIX_BUILD_TOP/packages/$ename-$melpaVersion.el"
@@ -143,4 +147,4 @@ genericBuild ({
   } // meta;
 }
 
-// removeAttrs args handledArgs)
+)
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/trivial.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/trivial.nix
index 11c28c0133e40..2c20b0567c68d 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/trivial.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/build-support/trivial.nix
@@ -2,10 +2,16 @@
 
 { callPackage, lib, ... }@envargs:
 
+let
+  libBuildHelper = import ./lib-build-helper.nix;
+in
+
+libBuildHelper.extendMkDerivation' (callPackage ./generic.nix envargs) (finalAttrs:
+
 args:
 
-callPackage ./generic.nix envargs ({
-  buildPhase = ''
+{
+  buildPhase = args.buildPhase or ''
     runHook preBuild
 
     emacs -L . --batch -f batch-byte-compile *.el
@@ -13,16 +19,15 @@ callPackage ./generic.nix envargs ({
     runHook postBuild
   '';
 
-  installPhase = ''
+  installPhase = args.installPhase or ''
     runHook preInstall
 
     LISPDIR=$out/share/emacs/site-lisp
     install -d $LISPDIR
     install *.el *.elc $LISPDIR
-    emacs --batch -l package --eval "(package-generate-autoloads \"${args.pname}\" \"$LISPDIR\")"
 
     runHook postInstall
   '';
 }
 
-// args)
+)