diff --git a/flake.nix b/flake.nix
index e3b9477a5..d74085db7 100644
--- a/flake.nix
+++ b/flake.nix
@@ -260,6 +260,7 @@
       testNixVersions = pkgs: client: daemon: with commonDeps { inherit pkgs; }; with pkgs.lib; pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
         NIX_DAEMON_PACKAGE = daemon;
         NIX_CLIENT_PACKAGE = client;
+        HAVE_LOCAL_NIX_BUILD = false;
         name =
           "nix-tests"
           + optionalString
diff --git a/tests/local.mk b/tests/local.mk
index 7479b1576..ac418dc0d 100644
--- a/tests/local.mk
+++ b/tests/local.mk
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# whether to run the tests that assume that we have a local build of
+# Nix
+HAVE_LOCAL_NIX_BUILD ?= 1
+
 nix_tests = \
   test-infra.sh \
   init.sh \
@@ -104,7 +108,6 @@ nix_tests = \
   case-hack.sh \
   placeholders.sh \
   ssh-relay.sh \
-  plugins.sh \
   build.sh \
   build-delete.sh \
   output-normalization.sh \
@@ -120,7 +123,6 @@ nix_tests = \
   flakes/show.sh \
   impure-derivations.sh \
   path-from-hash-part.sh \
-  test-libstoreconsumer.sh \
   toString-path.sh \
   read-only-store.sh \
   nested-sandboxing.sh
@@ -129,6 +131,17 @@ ifeq ($(HAVE_LIBCPUID), 1)
 	nix_tests += compute-levels.sh
 endif
 
+ifeq ($(HAVE_LOCAL_NIX_BUILD), 1)
+	nix_tests += test-libstoreconsumer.sh
+
+	ifeq ($(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS), 1)
+		nix_tests += plugins.sh
+	endif
+endif
+
+tests/test-libstoreconsumer.sh.test: tests/test-libstoreconsumer/test-libstoreconsumer
+tests/plugins.sh: tests/plugins/libplugintest.$(SO_EXT)
+
 install-tests += $(foreach x, $(nix_tests), $(d)/$(x))
 
 clean-files += \
@@ -137,9 +150,4 @@ clean-files += \
 
 test-deps += \
   tests/common/vars-and-functions.sh \
-  tests/config.nix \
-  tests/test-libstoreconsumer/test-libstoreconsumer
-
-ifeq ($(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS), 1)
-  test-deps += tests/plugins/libplugintest.$(SO_EXT)
-endif
+  tests/config.nix