diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/release-staging.nix b/pkgs/top-level/release-staging.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..3782c2c3d0c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/release-staging.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+# This file defines the builds that are run for the `staging` branch.
+#
+# This should be kept minimal to avoid unnecessary load on Hydra; the
+# point is not to duplicate `staging-next`, but to catch basic issues
+# early and make bisection less painful.
+
+{
+  nixpkgs ? {
+    outPath = (import ../../lib).cleanSource ../..;
+    revCount = 1234;
+    shortRev = "abcdef";
+    revision = "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000";
+  },
+  # The platform doubles for which we build Nixpkgs.
+  supportedSystems ? [
+    "x86_64-linux"
+    "x86_64-darwin"
+    "aarch64-linux"
+    "aarch64-darwin"
+  ],
+  # Attributes passed to nixpkgs. Don't build packages marked as unfree.
+  nixpkgsArgs ? {
+    config = {
+      allowUnfree = false;
+      inHydra = true;
+    };
+    __allowFileset = false;
+  },
+}:
+
+let
+  release-lib = import ./release-lib.nix {
+    inherit supportedSystems nixpkgsArgs;
+  };
+
+  inherit (release-lib)
+    all
+    mapTestOn
+    ;
+in
+mapTestOn {
+  stdenv = all;
+}