diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/kakoune/wrapper.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/kakoune/wrapper.nix
index 451507885ce0..c3507576f28d 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/kakoune/wrapper.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/kakoune/wrapper.nix
@@ -14,10 +14,17 @@ in
     paths = [ kakoune ] ++ requestedPlugins;
 
     postBuild = ''
+      # create a directory for bins that kakoune needs
+      # access to, without polluting the users path by adding
+      # that binary nested with this symlinkJoin.
+      mkdir -p $out/share/kak/bin
+
       # location of kak binary is used to find ../share/kak/autoload,
       # unless explicitly overriden with KAKOUNE_RUNTIME
       rm "$out/bin/kak"
-      makeWrapper "${kakoune}/bin/kak" "$out/bin/kak" --set KAKOUNE_RUNTIME "$out/share/kak"
+      makeWrapper "${kakoune}/bin/kak" "$out/bin/kak" \
+        --set KAKOUNE_RUNTIME "$out/share/kak" \
+        --set PATH "$PATH:$out/share/kak/bin"
 
       # currently kakoune ignores doc files if they are symlinks, so workaround by
       # copying doc files over, so they become regular files...