diff --git a/.github/workflows/basic-eval.yml b/.github/workflows/basic-eval.yml
index 9008ca208e17..04e74f774c2e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/basic-eval.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/basic-eval.yml
@@ -26,4 +26,4 @@ jobs:
         name: nixpkgs-ci
         signingKey: '${{ secrets.CACHIX_SIGNING_KEY }}'
     # explicit list of supportedSystems is needed until aarch64-darwin becomes part of the trunk jobset
-    - run: nix-build pkgs/top-level/release.nix -A tarball.nixpkgs-basic-release-checks --arg supportedSystems '[ "aarch64-darwin" "aarch64-linux" "x86_64-linux" "x86_64-darwin"  ]'
+    - run: nix-build pkgs/top-level/release.nix -A release-checks --arg supportedSystems '[ "aarch64-darwin" "aarch64-linux" "x86_64-linux" "x86_64-darwin"  ]'
diff --git a/nixos/release-combined.nix b/nixos/release-combined.nix
index 96b24feeb063..39cbe85579ae 100644
--- a/nixos/release-combined.nix
+++ b/nixos/release-combined.nix
@@ -168,7 +168,10 @@ in rec {
         (onFullSupported "nixpkgs.emacs")
         (onFullSupported "nixpkgs.jdk")
         (onSystems ["x86_64-linux"] "nixpkgs.mesa_i686") # i686 sanity check + useful
-        ["nixpkgs.tarball"]
+        [
+          "nixpkgs.tarball"
+          "nixpkgs.release-checks"
+        ]
       ];
     };
 }
diff --git a/nixos/release-small.nix b/nixos/release-small.nix
index cac20b63925f..d4de2fd8df4f 100644
--- a/nixos/release-small.nix
+++ b/nixos/release-small.nix
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@ in rec {
       [
         "nixos.channel"
         "nixpkgs.tarball"
+        "nixpkgs.release-checks"
       ]
       (map (onSystems [ "x86_64-linux" ]) [
         "nixos.tests.boot.biosCdrom"
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix b/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix
index 0f1c92be89bc..17df40fa0fb1 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix
@@ -34,9 +34,6 @@ pkgs.releaseTools.sourceTarball {
 
   requiredSystemFeatures = [ "big-parallel" ]; # 1 thread but ~36G RAM (!) see #227945
 
-  nixpkgs-basic-release-checks = import ./nixpkgs-basic-release-checks.nix
-   { inherit nix pkgs nixpkgs supportedSystems; };
-
   dontBuild = false;
 
   doCheck = true;
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/nixpkgs-basic-release-checks.nix b/pkgs/top-level/nixpkgs-basic-release-checks.nix
index 4acdab996787..ea1889090328 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/nixpkgs-basic-release-checks.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/nixpkgs-basic-release-checks.nix
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
-{ supportedSystems, nixpkgs, pkgs, nix }:
+{ supportedSystems, nixpkgs, pkgs }:
 
 pkgs.runCommand "nixpkgs-release-checks"
   {
     src = nixpkgs;
-    buildInputs = [ nix ];
+    buildInputs = [ pkgs.nix ];
     requiredSystemFeatures = [ "big-parallel" ]; # 1 thread but ~10G RAM; see #227945
   }
   ''
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/release.nix b/pkgs/top-level/release.nix
index e8ede387b4c2..2da2d7d64675 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/release.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/release.nix
@@ -80,6 +80,8 @@ let
   nonPackageJobs =
     { tarball = import ./make-tarball.nix { inherit pkgs nixpkgs officialRelease supportedSystems; };
 
+      release-checks = import ./nixpkgs-basic-release-checks.nix { inherit pkgs nixpkgs supportedSystems; };
+
       metrics = import ./metrics.nix { inherit pkgs nixpkgs; };
 
       manual = import ../../doc { inherit pkgs nixpkgs; };
@@ -91,6 +93,7 @@ let
           meta.description = "Release-critical builds for the Nixpkgs darwin channel";
           constituents =
             [ jobs.tarball
+              jobs.release-checks
               jobs.cabal2nix.x86_64-darwin
               jobs.ghc.x86_64-darwin
               jobs.git.x86_64-darwin
@@ -140,6 +143,7 @@ let
           meta.description = "Release-critical builds for the Nixpkgs unstable channel";
           constituents =
             [ jobs.tarball
+              jobs.release-checks
               jobs.metrics
               jobs.manual
               jobs.lib-tests