diff --git a/doc/hooks/check-phase-thread-limit-hook.section.md b/doc/hooks/check-phase-thread-limit-hook.section.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..0adc0d309c47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/hooks/check-phase-thread-limit-hook.section.md
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# checkPhaseThreadLimitHook {#setup-hook-check-phase-thread-limit}
+
+This hook defaults a variety of environment variables known
+to control thread counts to 1. Many of these otherwise default
+to `$(nproc)`, which causes massive overloads on build machines
+if nix build jobs and build cores are already tuned to fully utilize
+compute capacity of a builder without additional parallelism.
+
+Currently sets the following environment variables:
+- [`OMP_NUM_THREADS`](https://www.openmp.org/spec-html/5.0/openmpse50.html)
+- [`OPENBLAS_NUM_THREADS`](https://github.com/OpenMathLib/OpenBLAS/blob/e7b45174355edec1f04de1cabcf5ca6a98ea7fbc/USAGE.md#how-can-i-use-openblas-in-multi-threaded-applications)
+- [`MKL_NUM_THREADS`](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/onemkl/developer-guide-linux/2023-0/mkl-domain-num-threads.html)
+- [`BLIS_NUM_THREADS`](https://github.com/flame/blis/blob/b8b75b4e19459f5d618b57aa814ca38b1d82eb82/docs/Multithreading.md#specifying-multithreading)
+- `VECLIB_MAXIMUM_THREADS`: Only affects darwin, see [`man 7 Accelerate`](https://manp.gs/mac/7/Accelerate)
+- [`NUMBA_NUM_THREADS`](https://numba.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference/envvars.html#threading-control)
+- [`NUMEXPR_NUM_THREADS`](https://numexpr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_guide.html#threadpool-configuration)
+
+The `NIX_CHECK_PHASE_DEFAULT_NUM_THREADS` environment variable
+can be used to override the default thread count limit.
+`dontLimitCheckPhaseThreads = true;` can be used to disable
+thread limiting on an individual package.
+
+This hook will not attempt to override already existing
+definitions for thread count environment variables.
diff --git a/doc/hooks/index.md b/doc/hooks/index.md
index 63cc9b2ded64..2307782dec47 100644
--- a/doc/hooks/index.md
+++ b/doc/hooks/index.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ aws-c-common.section.md
 bmake.section.md
 breakpoint.section.md
 cernlib.section.md
+check-phase-thread-limit-hook.section.md
 cmake.section.md
 desktop-file-utils.section.md
 gdk-pixbuf.section.md
@@ -34,7 +35,6 @@ nodejs-install-manuals.section.md
 npm-build-hook.section.md
 npm-config-hook.section.md
 npm-install-hook.section.md
-openmp-check-hook.section.md
 patch-rc-path-hooks.section.md
 perl.section.md
 pkg-config.section.md
diff --git a/doc/hooks/openmp-check-hook.section.md b/doc/hooks/openmp-check-hook.section.md
deleted file mode 100644
index 5a5842eb5e29..000000000000
--- a/doc/hooks/openmp-check-hook.section.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
-# openmpCheckPhaseHook {#setup-hook-omp-check}
-
-
-This hook can be used to setup a check phase that
-requires running a OpenMP application. It mostly
-serves to limit `OMP_NUM_THREADS` to avoid overloading
-build machines.
-
-This hook will not attempt to override an already existing
-definition of `OMP_NUM_THREADS` in the environment.
diff --git a/doc/redirects.json b/doc/redirects.json
index 183986feb1d9..04d844ceaa2c 100644
--- a/doc/redirects.json
+++ b/doc/redirects.json
@@ -2920,7 +2920,8 @@
   "setup-hook-mpi-check": [
     "index.html#setup-hook-mpi-check"
   ],
-  "setup-hook-omp-check": [
+  "setup-hook-check-phase-thread-limit": [
+    "index.html#setup-hook-check-phase-thread-limit",
     "index.html#setup-hook-omp-check"
   ],
   "ninja": [
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/bl/blas/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/bl/blas/package.nix
index 51deec6c5c64..c0023957bcea 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/bl/blas/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/bl/blas/package.nix
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
   stdenv,
   lapack-reference,
   openblas,
-  openmpCheckPhaseHook,
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
   isILP64 ? false,
   blasProvider ? openblas,
 }:
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
   ];
 
   propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
-    openmpCheckPhaseHook
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
   ];
 
   meta = (blasProvider'.meta or { }) // {
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/bl/blis/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/bl/blis/package.nix
index 1edd86ae85c7..43b1e17c59ed 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/bl/blis/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/bl/blis/package.nix
@@ -5,6 +5,12 @@
   perl,
   python3,
 
+  # sets BLIS_NUM_THREADS and OMP_NUM_THREADS for packages
+  # invoking blis during checkPhase/installCheckPhase to
+  # avoid overloading builders with excessive parallelism
+  # See also: https://github.com/flame/blis/blob/b8b75b4e19459f5d618b57aa814ca38b1d82eb82/docs/Multithreading.md#specifying-multithreading
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
+
   # Enable BLAS interface with 64-bit integer width.
   blas64 ? false,
 
@@ -36,6 +42,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     python3
   ];
 
+  propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
+  ];
+
   doCheck = true;
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/ch/checkPhaseThreadLimitHook/hook.sh b/pkgs/by-name/ch/checkPhaseThreadLimitHook/hook.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1b610b631d84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/ch/checkPhaseThreadLimitHook/hook.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+setupThreadLimit() {
+  # Limit number of threads used during checks. Default is "all cores".
+  # Using all cores causes high load on builders if checks are executed with NIX_BUILD_CORE parallelism.
+  # This gets even worse if multiple builds are scheduled on the same machine, potentially growing O(n^3) without explicit core limits.
+
+  # global value to override all of these at once
+  NIX_CHECK_PHASE_DEFAULT_NUM_THREADS="${NIX_CHECK_PHASE_DEFAULT_NUM_THREADS:-1}"
+
+  thread_vars=(
+    OMP_NUM_THREADS
+    OPENBLAS_NUM_THREADS
+    MKL_NUM_THREADS
+    BLIS_NUM_THREADS
+    VECLIB_MAXIMUM_THREADS
+    NUMBA_NUM_THREADS
+    NUMEXPR_NUM_THREADS
+  )
+
+  echo "setting known thread variables to default: $NIX_CHECK_PHASE_DEFAULT_NUM_THREADS"
+  for var in "${thread_vars[@]}"; do
+    export "$var=${!var:-$NIX_CHECK_PHASE_DEFAULT_NUM_THREADS}"
+    printf " %s=%s" "$var" "${!var}"
+  done
+  printf "\n"
+}
+
+
+if [[ -z "${dontLimitCheckPhaseThreads-}" ]]; then
+    echo "Using checkPhaseThreadLimitHook"
+    preCheckHooks+=('setupThreadLimit')
+    preInstallCheckHooks+=('setupThreadLimit')
+fi
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/ch/checkPhaseThreadLimitHook/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/ch/checkPhaseThreadLimitHook/package.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6bd9bda7135a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/ch/checkPhaseThreadLimitHook/package.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+{
+  lib,
+  makeSetupHook,
+}:
+
+makeSetupHook {
+  name = "check-phase-thread-limit-hook";
+
+  __structuredAttrs = true;
+
+  meta = {
+    license = lib.licenses.mit;
+    maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [ grimmauld ];
+  };
+} ./hook.sh
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/mc/mctc-lib/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/mc/mctc-lib/package.nix
index a2de791d14f0..0363ab2988cf 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/mc/mctc-lib/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/mc/mctc-lib/package.nix
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
   pkg-config,
   python3,
   jonquil,
-  openmpCheckPhaseHook,
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
 }:
 
 assert (
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     gfortran
     pkg-config
     python3
-    openmpCheckPhaseHook
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
   ]
   ++ lib.optionals (buildType == "meson") [
     meson
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/mk/mkl/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/mk/mkl/package.nix
index f9e1dda4e7ab..31b724759e8a 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/mk/mkl/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/mk/mkl/package.nix
@@ -8,6 +8,11 @@
   _7zz,
   cctools,
   validatePkgConfig,
+  # sets MKL_NUM_THREADS for packages
+  # invoking mkl during checkPhase/installCheckPhase to
+  # avoid overloading builders with excessive parallelism
+  # See also: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/onemkl/developer-guide-linux/2023-0/mkl-domain-num-threads.html
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
   enableStatic ? stdenv.hostPlatform.isStatic,
 }:
 
@@ -86,6 +91,10 @@ stdenvNoCC.mkDerivation (
         [ rpmextract ]
     );
 
+    propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
+      checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
+    ];
+
     buildPhase =
       if stdenvNoCC.hostPlatform.isDarwin then
         ''
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/mp/mpiCheckPhaseHook/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/mp/mpiCheckPhaseHook/package.nix
index db5832c28a6e..8fc6081e2e14 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/mp/mpiCheckPhaseHook/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/mp/mpiCheckPhaseHook/package.nix
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
   lib,
   makeSetupHook,
   stdenv,
-  openmpCheckPhaseHook,
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
 }:
 
 makeSetupHook {
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ makeSetupHook {
   };
 
   propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
-    openmpCheckPhaseHook
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
   ];
 
   meta.license = lib.licenses.mit;
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/op/openmpCheckPhaseHook/omp-check-hook.sh b/pkgs/by-name/op/openmpCheckPhaseHook/omp-check-hook.sh
deleted file mode 100644
index b3279b170360..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/by-name/op/openmpCheckPhaseHook/omp-check-hook.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-preCheckHooks+=('setupOmpCheck')
-preInstallCheckHooks+=('setupOmpCheck')
-
-
-setupOmpCheck() {
-  # Limit number of OpenMP threads. Default is "all cores".
-  # Using all cores causes high load on builders if checks are executed with NIX_BUILD_CORE parallelism.
-  # This gets even worse if multiple builds are scheduled on the same machine, potentially growing O(n^3) without explicit core limits.
-  export OMP_NUM_THREADS="${OMP_NUM_THREADS:-1}"
-}
-
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/op/openmpCheckPhaseHook/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/op/openmpCheckPhaseHook/package.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 9e30609e8de5..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/by-name/op/openmpCheckPhaseHook/package.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-{
-  lib,
-  makeSetupHook,
-}:
-
-makeSetupHook {
-  name = "omp-checkPhase-hook";
-
-  __structuredAttrs = true;
-
-  meta.license = lib.licenses.mit;
-} ./omp-check-hook.sh
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/pi/pixman/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/pi/pixman/package.nix
index 23755586fe6c..f9e469ede120 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/pi/pixman/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/pi/pixman/package.nix
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
   ninja,
   pkg-config,
   libpng,
-  openmpCheckPhaseHook,
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
   glib, # just passthru
 
   # for passthru.tests
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     meson
     ninja
     pkg-config
-    openmpCheckPhaseHook
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
     __flattenIncludeHackHook
   ];
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/llvm/common/openmp/default.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/llvm/common/openmp/default.nix
index 10f9ce154cb4..0b971ea1d0ef 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/llvm/common/openmp/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/llvm/common/openmp/default.nix
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
   ompdSupport ? true,
   ompdGdbSupport ? ompdSupport,
   getVersionFile,
-  openmpCheckPhaseHook,
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
 }:
 
 assert lib.assertMsg (ompdGdbSupport -> ompdSupport) "OMPD GDB support requires OMPD support!";
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
   ];
 
   propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
-    openmpCheckPhaseHook
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
   ];
 
   buildInputs = [
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openblas/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openblas/default.nix
index 97b7596b937c..ee5e6f12caa8 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openblas/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openblas/default.nix
@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@
   fetchFromGitHub,
   fetchpatch,
   cmake,
+  # sets OPENBLAS_NUM_THREADS and OMP_NUM_THREADS for packages
+  # invoking openblas during checkPhase/installCheckPhase to
+  # avoid overloading builders with excessive parallelism
+  # See also: https://github.com/OpenMathLib/OpenBLAS/blob/e7b45174355edec1f04de1cabcf5ca6a98ea7fbc/USAGE.md#how-can-i-use-openblas-in-multi-threaded-applications
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
   # Most packages depending on openblas expect integer width to match
   # pointer width, but some expect to use 32-bit integers always
   # (for compatibility with reference BLAS).
@@ -232,6 +237,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     cmake
   ];
 
+  propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
+  ];
+
   buildInputs = lib.optional (stdenv.cc.isClang && config.USE_OPENMP) openmp;
 
   depsBuildBuild = [
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/joblib/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/joblib/default.nix
index 2474439fc910..b4b9c7bf2217 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/joblib/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/joblib/default.nix
@@ -5,6 +5,14 @@
   pythonAtLeast,
   stdenv,
 
+  # sets various thread limit env vars for packages
+  # invoking joblib during checkPhase/installCheckPhase to
+  # avoid overloading builders with excessive parallelism
+  # See also:
+  # https://github.com/joblib/joblib/blob/b030e4e1ed6a227c0e587c31b266c03b3b692372/joblib/_parallel_backends.py#L59-L67
+  # https://github.com/joblib/joblib/blob/b030e4e1ed6a227c0e587c31b266c03b3b692372/joblib/_parallel_backends.py#L221-L248
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
+
   # build-system
   setuptools,
 
@@ -40,6 +48,14 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     threadpoolctl
   ];
 
+  propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
+  ];
+
+  # joblib expects to set thread limits itself while checking for propagation of thread limit environment variables.
+  # Setting these via checkPhaseThreadLimitHook on joblib itself causes tests to fail, but we do want the hook to propagate.
+  dontLimitCheckPhaseThreads = true;
+
   enabledTestPaths = [ "joblib/test" ];
 
   disabledTests = [
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/numba/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/numba/default.nix
index 11c25c98168d..7c215cdb4aaf 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/numba/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/numba/default.nix
@@ -8,6 +8,12 @@
   # nativeBuildInputs
   setuptools,
 
+  # sets NUMBA_NUM_THREADS and OMP_NUM_THREADS for packages
+  # invoking numba during checkPhase/installCheckPhase to
+  # avoid overloading builders with excessive parallelism
+  # See also: https://numba.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference/envvars.html#threading-control
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
+
   # dependencies
   llvmlite,
   numpy,
@@ -104,6 +110,10 @@ buildPythonPackage (finalAttrs: {
     writableTmpDirAsHomeHook
   ];
 
+  propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
+  ];
+
   # https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/255262
   preCheck = ''
     cd $out
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/numexpr/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/numexpr/default.nix
index f4b552c108ec..426b53e7814d 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/numexpr/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/numexpr/default.nix
@@ -5,6 +5,11 @@
   numpy,
   pytestCheckHook,
   setuptools,
+  # sets NUMEXPR_NUM_THREADS and OMP_NUM_THREADS for packages
+  # invoking numexpr during checkPhase/installCheckPhase to
+  # avoid overloading builders with excessive parallelism
+  # See also: https://numexpr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_guide.html#threadpool-configuration
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
 }:
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
@@ -31,6 +36,10 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
 
   nativeCheckInputs = [ pytestCheckHook ];
 
+  propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
+  ];
+
   preCheck = ''
     pushd $out
   '';
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/numpy/1.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/numpy/1.nix
index 7167ff94637e..c1c9cb2bed6e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/numpy/1.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/numpy/1.nix
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
   blas,
   lapack,
 
-  openmpCheckPhaseHook,
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
 
   # Reverse dependency
   sage,
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ buildPythonPackage (finalAttrs: {
   ];
 
   propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
-    openmpCheckPhaseHook
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
   ];
 
   preCheck = ''
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/numpy/2.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/numpy/2.nix
index 730d26e74543..80bfe85db35a 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/numpy/2.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/numpy/2.nix
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
   coreutils,
   lapack,
 
-  openmpCheckPhaseHook,
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
 
   # Reverse dependency
   astropy,
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ buildPythonPackage (finalAttrs: {
   '';
 
   propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
-    openmpCheckPhaseHook
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
   ];
 
   preCheck = ''
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix b/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
index 05ba512c90a7..5835a5dca11d 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/aliases.nix
@@ -1736,6 +1736,7 @@ mapAliases {
   openjfx23 = throw "OpenJFX 23 was removed as it has reached its end of life"; # Added 2025-11-04
   openjfx24 = throw "OpenJFX 24 was removed as it has reached its end of life"; # Added 2025-10-04
   openmodelica = throw "'openmodelica' has been removed as it was unmaintained in nixpkgs and depends on insecure&unmtaintained qtwebkit"; # Added 2026-04-26
+  openmpCheckPhaseHook = warnAlias "'openmpCheckPhaseHook' has been renamed to 'checkPhaseThreadLimitHook' to reflect its handling of all known thread-limiting mechanisms during check phase" checkPhaseThreadLimitHook; # Added 2026-07-09
   openmw-tes3mp = throw "'openmw-tes3mp' has been removed due to lack of maintenance upstream"; # Added 2025-08-30
   openssl_3_0 = throw "'openssl_3_0' has been renamed to/replaced by 'openssl_3'"; # Converted to throw 2025-10-27
   opensycl = throw "'opensycl' has been renamed to/replaced by 'adaptivecpp'"; # Converted to throw 2025-10-27