diff --git a/doc/devshell.md b/doc/devshell.md
index 4939fd3c..221d08ea 100644
--- a/doc/devshell.md
+++ b/doc/devshell.md
@@ -6,6 +6,14 @@ order: -8
 
 haskell-flake uses the [`shellFor`][shellFor] function to provide a Haskell development shell. `shellFor` in turn uses the standard [`mkShell`][mkShell] function to create a Nix shell environment. The `mkShellArgs` option can be used to pass custom arguments to `mkShell`.
 
+Development tools are built from `basePackages` by default. Use `devShell.packages` to choose a different Haskell package set for those tools:
+
+```nix
+{
+  haskellProjects.default.devShell.packages = pkgs.haskellPackages;
+}
+```
+
 ```nix
 {
   haskellProjects.default = {
@@ -45,4 +53,3 @@ This sort of composition is either impossible or very complex to do with the `mk
 
 [shellFor]: https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/unstable/#haskell-shellFor
 [mkShell]: https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-pkgs-mkShell
-
diff --git a/nix/modules/project/devshell.nix b/nix/modules/project/devshell.nix
index cc4b1b86..3785cac6 100644
--- a/nix/modules/project/devshell.nix
+++ b/nix/modules/project/devshell.nix
@@ -16,6 +16,16 @@ let
         '';
         default = true;
       };
+      packages = mkOption {
+        type = types.lazyAttrsOf types.raw;
+        description = ''
+          Haskell package set used to build development tools.
+
+          By default, this is `basePackages`, before project package
+          overrides are applied.
+        '';
+        default = config.basePackages;
+      };
       tools = mkOption {
         type = functionTo (types.lazyAttrsOf (types.nullOr types.package));
         description = ''
@@ -105,8 +115,8 @@ in
       inherit (config.outputs) finalPackages;
 
       nativeBuildInputs = lib.attrValues (
-        config.defaults.devShell.tools finalPackages //
-        config.devShell.tools finalPackages
+        config.defaults.devShell.tools config.devShell.packages //
+        config.devShell.tools config.devShell.packages
       );
       mkShellArgs = config.devShell.mkShellArgs // {
         nativeBuildInputs = (config.devShell.mkShellArgs.nativeBuildInputs or [ ]) ++ nativeBuildInputs;