diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/ch/cheating-daddy/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/ch/cheating-daddy/package.nix
index eaebe9439954..8e5a93b24519 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/ch/cheating-daddy/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/ch/cheating-daddy/package.nix
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ buildNpmPackage (finalAttrs: {
     ONNXRUNTIME_NODE_INSTALL = "skip";
     ONNXRUNTIME_NODE_INSTALL_CUDA = "skip";
     ELECTRON_SKIP_BINARY_DOWNLOAD = "1";
+    # electron-forge's console output is squeezed into one narrow column if unset
+    CI = "1";
   };
 
   makeCacheWritable = true;
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/el/electron-fiddle/dont-fetch-contributors.patch b/pkgs/by-name/el/electron-fiddle/dont-fetch-contributors.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..2cf2a3544980
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/el/electron-fiddle/dont-fetch-contributors.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+diff --git a/tools/contributors.ts b/tools/contributors.ts
+index ad085d3..1a30ab4 100644
+--- a/tools/contributors.ts
++++ b/tools/contributors.ts
+@@ -126,6 +126,7 @@ async function fetchDetailsContributors(
+ }
+ 
+ async function fetchContributors() {
++  return []
+   const response = await fetch(CONTRIBUTORS_URL, { headers: HEADERS });
+ 
+   if (!response.ok) {
+@@ -173,10 +174,6 @@ async function fetchAndWriteContributorsFile() {
+ 
+         try {
+           data = await fetchContributors();
+-
+-          if (!data || data.length === 0) {
+-            throw new Error('Contributors array is empty');
+-          }
+         } catch (error) {
+           if (process.env.CI) {
+             throw error;
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/el/electron-fiddle/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/el/electron-fiddle/package.nix
index c716e86d7fcb..fc8d78f0f6e8 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/el/electron-fiddle/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/el/electron-fiddle/package.nix
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ let
 
   patches = [
     ./dont-use-initial-releases-json.patch
+    ./dont-fetch-contributors.patch
 
     # zip extraction fails on newer nodejs versions without this fix
     ./bump-yauzl.patch
@@ -66,6 +67,9 @@ let
         --replace-fail 'await this.getElectronZipPath(downloadOpts)' '"electron.zip"'
     '';
 
+    # electron-forge's console output is squeezed into one narrow column if unset
+    env.CI = "1";
+
     yarnBuildScript = "package";
 
     installPhase = ''
@@ -101,6 +105,8 @@ buildFHSEnv {
   inherit pname version;
   runScript = "${lib.getExe electron} ${unwrapped}/lib/electron-fiddle/resources/app.asar";
 
+  passthru = { inherit unwrapped; };
+
   extraInstallCommands = ''
     mkdir -p "$out/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps"
     ln -s "${unwrapped}/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/electron-fiddle.svg" "$out/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/"
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/ka/kando/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/ka/kando/package.nix
index d4963a5d5eeb..f6f4b5789982 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/ka/kando/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/ka/kando/package.nix
@@ -69,6 +69,8 @@ buildNpmPackage.override { inherit nodejs; } rec {
     ELECTRON_SKIP_BINARY_DOWNLOAD = "1";
     # use our own node headers since we skip downloading them
     NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE = "-I${nodejs}/include/node";
+    # electron-forge's console output is squeezed into one narrow column if unset
+    CI = "1";
   };
 
   postConfigure = ''
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/lo/logseq/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/lo/logseq/package.nix
index 814f8f49e311..9eff3bf535ee 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/lo/logseq/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/lo/logseq/package.nix
@@ -244,6 +244,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     cp -r static/node_modules resources/node_modules
   '';
 
+  # electron-forge's console output is squeezed into one narrow column if unset
+  env.CI = "1";
+
   yarnBuildScript = "release-electron";
 
   installPhase = ''
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/rs/rstudio/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/rs/rstudio/package.nix
index c0f40c003651..712c82014729 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/rs/rstudio/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/rs/rstudio/package.nix
@@ -191,6 +191,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
   env = {
     ELECTRON_SKIP_BINARY_DOWNLOAD = "1";
 
+    # electron-forge's console output is squeezed into one narrow column if unset
+    CI = "1";
+
     # on Darwin, cmake uses find_library to locate R instead of using the PATH
     NIX_LDFLAGS = "-L${R}/lib/R/lib";
 
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/st/stoat-desktop/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/st/stoat-desktop/package.nix
index d7a4998172b7..f2cb193acdbf 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/st/stoat-desktop/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/st/stoat-desktop/package.nix
@@ -72,6 +72,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
 
   env.ELECTRON_SKIP_BINARY_DOWNLOAD = "1";
 
+  # electron-forge's console output is squeezed into one narrow column if unset
+  env.CI = "1";
+
   buildPhase = ''
     runHook preBuild
 
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/yt/ytmdesktop/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/yt/ytmdesktop/package.nix
index 84ef3a767a3d..87ed83644327 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/yt/ytmdesktop/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/yt/ytmdesktop/package.nix
@@ -97,6 +97,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     substituteInPlace node_modules/@electron/packager/dist/packager.js \
       --replace-fail 'await this.getElectronZipPath(downloadOpts)' '"electron.zip"'
 
+    # electron-forge's console output is squeezed into one narrow column if unset
+    export CI="1";
+
     yarn run package
 
     runHook postBuild