diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/leveldb/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/leveldb/default.nix
index 7212c2c4e02b..a13f11c74206 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/leveldb/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/leveldb/default.nix
@@ -1,19 +1,26 @@
 {
   lib,
-  fetchPypi,
   buildPythonPackage,
+  fetchPypi,
+  pythonAtLeast,
+  setuptools,
 }:
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
   pname = "leveldb";
   version = "0.201";
-  format = "setuptools";
+
+  pyproject = true;
+
+  disabled = pythonAtLeast "3.12";
 
   src = fetchPypi {
     inherit pname version;
     sha256 = "1cffe776842917e09f073bd6ea5856c64136aebddbe51bd17ea29913472fecbf";
   };
 
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ setuptools ];
+
   meta = with lib; {
     homepage = "https://code.google.com/archive/p/py-leveldb/";
     description = "Thread-safe Python bindings for LevelDB";