diff --git a/t/lib/HydraTestContext.pm b/t/lib/HydraTestContext.pm
index badb3728..53eaa0f7 100644
--- a/t/lib/HydraTestContext.pm
+++ b/t/lib/HydraTestContext.pm
@@ -53,16 +53,19 @@ sub new {
     my $hydra_config = $opts{'hydra_config'} || "";
     $hydra_config = "queue_runner_metrics_address = 127.0.0.1:0\n" . $hydra_config;
     if ($opts{'use_external_destination_store'} // 1) {
-        $hydra_config = "store_uri = file:$dir/nix/dest-store\n" . $hydra_config;
+        $hydra_config = "store_uri = file://$dir/nix/dest-store\n" . $hydra_config;
     }
 
     write_file($ENV{'HYDRA_CONFIG'}, $hydra_config);
 
-    $ENV{'NIX_LOG_DIR'} = "$dir/nix/var/log/nix";
+    my $nix_store_dir = "$dir/nix/store";
+    my $nix_state_dir = "$dir/nix/var/nix";
+    my $nix_log_dir = "$dir/nix/var/log/nix";
+
     $ENV{'NIX_REMOTE_SYSTEMS'} = '';
-    $ENV{'NIX_REMOTE'} = '';
-    $ENV{'NIX_STATE_DIR'} = "$dir/nix/var/nix";
-    $ENV{'NIX_STORE_DIR'} = "$dir/nix/store";
+    $ENV{'NIX_REMOTE'} = "local?store=$nix_store_dir&state=$nix_state_dir&log=$nix_log_dir";
+    $ENV{'NIX_STATE_DIR'} = $nix_state_dir; # FIXME: remove
+    $ENV{'NIX_STORE_DIR'} = $nix_store_dir; # FIXME: remove
 
     my $pgsql = Test::PostgreSQL->new(
         extra_initdb_args => "--locale C.UTF-8"
@@ -73,7 +76,8 @@ sub new {
         _db => undef,
         db_handle => $pgsql,
         tmpdir => $dir,
-        nix_state_dir => "$dir/nix/var/nix",
+        nix_state_dir => $nix_state_dir,
+        nix_log_dir => $nix_log_dir,
         testdir => abs_path(dirname(__FILE__) . "/.."),
         jobsdir => abs_path(dirname(__FILE__) . "/../jobs")
     }, $class;
diff --git a/t/queue-runner/notifications.t b/t/queue-runner/notifications.t
index b35b2b2f..1966cde1 100644
--- a/t/queue-runner/notifications.t
+++ b/t/queue-runner/notifications.t
@@ -33,9 +33,6 @@ my $ctx = test_context(
 # the build locally.
 
 subtest "Pre-build the job, upload to the cache, and then delete locally" => sub {
-    my $scratchlogdir = File::Temp->newdir();
-    $ENV{'NIX_LOG_DIR'} = "$scratchlogdir";
-
     my $outlink = $ctx->tmpdir . "/basic-canbesubstituted";
     is(system('nix-build', $ctx->jobsdir . '/notifications.nix', '-A', 'canbesubstituted', '--out-link', $outlink), 0, "Building notifications.nix succeeded");
     is(system('nix', 'copy', '--to', "file://${binarycachedir}", $outlink), 0, "Copying the closure to the binary cache succeeded");
@@ -46,6 +43,7 @@ subtest "Pre-build the job, upload to the cache, and then delete locally" => sub
     is(system('nix', 'log', $outpath), 0, "Reading the output's log succeeds");
     is(system('nix-store', '--delete', $outpath), 0, "Deleting the notifications.nix output succeeded");
     is(system("nix-collect-garbage"), 0, "Delete all the system's garbage");
+    File::Path::rmtree($ctx->{nix_log_dir});
 };
 
 subtest "Ensure substituting the job works, but reading the log fails" => sub {