diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/howl/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/howl/default.nix
index 030c6666e11d..9406604413c4 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/howl/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/howl/default.nix
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     description = "A general purpose, fast and lightweight editor with a keyboard-centric minimalistic user interface";
     license = licenses.mit;
     maintainers = with maintainers; [ pacien ];
+    mainProgram = "howl";
 
     # LuaJIT and Howl builds fail for x86_64-darwin and aarch64-linux respectively
     platforms = [ "i686-linux" "x86_64-linux" ];