diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-modes/melpa-packages.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-modes/melpa-packages.nix
index bc0875bcd9ee..9334a16d22d6 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-modes/melpa-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs-modes/melpa-packages.nix
@@ -341,6 +341,7 @@ let
         # Telega has a server portion for it's network protocol
         telega = super.telega.overrideAttrs (old: {
           buildInputs = old.buildInputs ++ [ pkgs.tdlib ];
+          nativeBuildInputs = [ external.pkg-config ];
 
           postBuild = ''
             cd source/server