diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/alot/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/alot/default.nix
index 3d09711fb3cc..cb49829dce07 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/alot/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/alot/default.nix
@@ -9,13 +9,7 @@
 , withManpage ? false
 }:
 
-with python3.pkgs;
-let
-  notmuch2 = callPackage ./notmuch.nix {
-    inherit notmuch;
-  };
-in
-buildPythonApplication rec {
+with python3.pkgs; buildPythonApplication rec {
   pname = "alot";
   version = "0.10";
 
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/notmuch/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/notmuch/default.nix
index 184804a87888..e89216802e50 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/notmuch/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/notmuch/default.nix
@@ -62,7 +62,12 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
   makeFlags = [ "V=1" ];
 
-  outputs = [ "out" "man" "info" ]
+  postConfigure = ''
+    mkdir ${placeholder "bindingconfig"}
+    cp bindings/python-cffi/_notmuch_config.py ${placeholder "bindingconfig"}/
+  '';
+
+  outputs = [ "out" "man" "info" "bindingconfig" ]
     ++ lib.optional withEmacs "emacs"
     ++ lib.optional withRuby "ruby";
 
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/alot/notmuch.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/notmuch2/default.nix
similarity index 73%
rename from pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/alot/notmuch.nix
rename to pkgs/development/python-modules/notmuch2/default.nix
index bd195b52d44e..5d74270a58c2 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/alot/notmuch.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/notmuch2/default.nix
@@ -14,6 +14,12 @@ buildPythonPackage {
 
   buildInputs = [ python notmuch cffi ];
 
+  # since notmuch 0.35, this package expects _notmuch_config.py that is
+  # generated by notmuch's configure script
+  postPatch = ''
+    cp ${notmuch.bindingconfig}/_notmuch_config.py .
+  '';
+
   # no tests
   doCheck = false;
   pythonImportsCheck = [ "notmuch2" ];
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index eaead6df5e10..b3bb64ad8f29 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -5617,6 +5617,10 @@ in {
     inherit (pkgs) notmuch;
   };
 
+  notmuch2 = callPackage ../development/python-modules/notmuch2 {
+    inherit (pkgs) notmuch;
+  };
+
   nototools = callPackage ../data/fonts/noto-fonts/tools.nix { };
 
   notus-scanner = callPackage ../development/python-modules/notus-scanner { };