diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/boa-api/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/boa-api/default.nix
index 038d9b2c65ab..d96b64522622 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/boa-api/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/boa-api/default.nix
@@ -1,24 +1,34 @@
 { lib
 , buildPythonPackage
 , fetchFromGitHub
+, pythonOlder
 }:
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
   pname = "boa-api";
   version = "0.1.14";
+  format = "setuptools";
+
+  disabled = pythonOlder "3.7";
 
   src = fetchFromGitHub {
     owner = "boalang";
     repo = "api-python";
-    rev = "v${version}";
+    rev = "refs/tags/v${version}";
     sha256 = "sha256-8tt68NLi5ewSKiHdu3gDawTBPylbDmB4zlUUqa7EQuY=";
   };
 
-  pythonImportsCheck = [ "boaapi" ];
+  # upstream has no tests
+  doCheck = false;
+
+  pythonImportsCheck = [
+    "boaapi"
+  ];
 
   meta = {
     homepage = "https://github.com/boalang/api-python";
     description = "Python client API for communicating with Boa's (https://boa.cs.iastate.edu/) XML-RPC based services";
+    changelog = "https://github.com/boalang/api-python/blob/${src.rev}/Changes.txt";
     license = lib.licenses.asl20;
     maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [ swflint ];
   };