diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/ipykernel/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/ipykernel/default.nix
index dd84c0e65389..21e371c1a48b 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/ipykernel/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/ipykernel/default.nix
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 , buildPythonPackage
 , callPackage
 , fetchPypi
+, pythonOlder
+, argcomplete
 , debugpy
 , ipython
 , jupyter-client
@@ -24,6 +26,8 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     jupyter-client
     tornado
     traitlets
+  ] ++ lib.optionals (pythonOlder "3.8") [
+    argcomplete
   ];
 
   # check in passthru.tests.pytest to escape infinite recursion with ipyparallel