diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/do/dovecot/fix-lua-build.patch b/pkgs/by-name/do/dovecot/fix-lua-build.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..23d2dcb9bcd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/do/dovecot/fix-lua-build.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+diff --git a/src/auth/Makefile.am b/src/auth/Makefile.am
+index 7474e76fb6..e7fc4aad0f 100644
+--- a/src/auth/Makefile.am
++++ b/src/auth/Makefile.am
+@@ -21,12 +21,11 @@ LUA_LIB =
+ AUTH_LUA_LIBS =
+ AUTH_LUA_LDADD =
+ if HAVE_LUA
+-
++AUTH_LUA_LDADD += $(LUA_LIBS)
+ if AUTH_LUA_PLUGIN
+ LUA_LIB += libauthdb_lua.la
+ else
+ AUTH_LUA_LIBS += $(LIBDOVECOT_LUA)
+-AUTH_LUA_LDADD += $(LUA_LIBS)
+ endif
+ endif
+ 
+@@ -200,7 +199,7 @@ endif
+ endif
+ 
+ if HAVE_LUA
+-auth_libs += $(LIBDOVECOT_LUA) $(LUA_LIBS)
++auth_libs += $(LIBDOVECOT_LUA)
+ endif
+ 
+ if AUTH_LUA_PLUGIN
+
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/do/dovecot/generic.nix b/pkgs/by-name/do/dovecot/generic.nix
index 40326745401c..7c54332c89ab 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/do/dovecot/generic.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/do/dovecot/generic.nix
@@ -78,9 +78,9 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     bison
     perl
     pkg-config
+    autoreconfHook
   ]
   ++ lib.optionals (stdenv.hostPlatform.isLinux && !stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin) [ rpcsvc-proto ]
-  ++ lib.optionals (stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin) [ autoreconfHook ]
   ++ lib.optional (withMySQL && lib.versionOlder version "2.4") fake_mysql_config;
 
   buildInputs = [
@@ -125,7 +125,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
-  env.NIX_LDFLAGS = lib.optionalString stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin "-liconv";
+  env = {
+    NIX_LDFLAGS = lib.optionalString stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin "-liconv";
+    LUA_PATH = lib.optionalString withLua "${lua5_3.pkgs.json}/share/lua/${lua5_3.luaversion}/?.lua";
+  };
 
   postPatch = ''
     sed -i -E \
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/do/dovecot/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/do/dovecot/package.nix
index ccd716f729e3..aae29eb5e8fd 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/do/dovecot/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/do/dovecot/package.nix
@@ -4,5 +4,6 @@ import ./generic.nix {
   patches = _: [
     # Fix loading extended modules.
     ./load-extended-modules.patch
+    ./fix-lua-build.patch
   ];
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/development/lua-modules/json/default.nix b/pkgs/development/lua-modules/json/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..9485c5c4eef1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/lua-modules/json/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+{
+  buildLuaPackage,
+  fetchFromGitHub,
+  lib,
+  lua,
+}:
+
+buildLuaPackage rec {
+  pname = "json";
+  version = "0.1.2";
+  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+    owner = "rxi";
+    repo = "json.lua";
+    rev = "v${version}";
+    hash = "sha256-JSKMxF5NSHW3QaELFPWm1sx7kHmOXEPsUkM3i/px7Gk=";
+  };
+
+  dontBuild = true;
+
+  installPhase = ''
+    runHook preInstall
+
+    mkdir -p $out/share/lua/${lua.luaversion}
+    cp -r json.lua $out/share/lua/${lua.luaversion}
+
+    runHook postInstall
+  '';
+
+  meta = {
+    homepage = "https://github.com/rxi/json.lua";
+    description = "A lightweight JSON library for Lua";
+    license = lib.licenses.mit;
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/lua-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/lua-packages.nix
index aed979e7a5d5..873e872640ab 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/lua-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/lua-packages.nix
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ rec {
 
   image-nvim = callPackage ../development/lua-modules/image-nvim { };
 
+  json = callPackage ../development/lua-modules/json { };
+
   lua-https = callPackage ../development/lua-modules/lua-https { };
 
   lua-pam = callPackage (