diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/default.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/default.nix
index b7482efe7f55..51f76f1108af 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/default.nix
@@ -6,9 +6,26 @@
 # 3) Run ./elm2nix.rb in elm-reactor's directory.
 # 4) Move the resulting 'package.nix' to 'packages/elm-reactor-elm.nix'.
 
+# the elm binary embeds a piece of pre-compiled elm code, used by 'elm
+# reactor'. this means that the build process for 'elm' effectively
+# executes 'elm make'. that in turn expects to retrieve the elm
+# dependencies of that code (elm/core, etc.) from
+# package.elm-lang.org, as well as a cached bit of metadata
+# (versions.dat).
+
+# the makeDotElm function lets us retrieve these dependencies in the
+# standard nix way. we have to copy them in (rather than symlink) and
+# make them writable because the elm compiler writes other .dat files
+# alongside the source code. versions.dat was produced during an
+# impure build of this same code; the build complains that it can't
+# update this cache, but continues past that warning.
+
+# finally, we set ELM_HOME to point to these pre-fetched artifacts so
+# that the default of ~/.elm isn't used.
+
 let
-  makeElmStuff = deps:
-    let json = builtins.toJSON (lib.mapAttrs (name: info: info.version) deps);
+  makeDotElm = ver: deps:
+    let versionsDat = ./versions.dat;
         cmds = lib.mapAttrsToList (name: info: let
                  pkg = stdenv.mkDerivation {
 
@@ -29,15 +46,13 @@ let
 
                  };
                in ''
-                 mkdir -p elm-stuff/packages/${name}
-                 ln -s ${pkg} elm-stuff/packages/${name}/${info.version}
+                 mkdir -p .elm/${ver}/package/${name}
+                 cp -R ${pkg} .elm/${ver}/package/${name}/${info.version}
+                 chmod -R +w .elm/${ver}/package/${name}/${info.version}
                '') deps;
     in ''
-      export HOME=/tmp
-      mkdir elm-stuff
-      cat > elm-stuff/exact-dependencies.json <<EOF
-      ${json}
-      EOF
+      mkdir -p .elm/${ver}/package;
+      ln -s ${versionsDat} .elm/${ver}/package/versions.dat;
     '' + lib.concatStrings cmds;
 
   hsPkgs = haskell.packages.ghc822.override {
@@ -45,7 +60,9 @@ let
       let hlib = haskell.lib;
           elmPkgs = {
             elm = hlib.overrideCabal (self.callPackage ./packages/elm.nix { }) {
-              preConfigure = "export HOME=`pwd`";
+              preConfigure = ''
+                export ELM_HOME=`pwd`/.elm
+              '' + (makeDotElm "0.19.0" (import ./packages/elm-elm.nix));
             };
 
             /*
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/packages/elm-elm.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/packages/elm-elm.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1537dbf67817
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/packages/elm-elm.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+{
+  "elm/time" = {
+    version = "1.0.0";
+    sha256 = "0vch7i86vn0x8b850w1p69vplll1bnbkp8s383z7pinyg94cm2z1";
+  };
+  "elm/url" = {
+    version = "1.0.0";
+    sha256 = "0av8x5syid40sgpl5vd7pry2rq0q4pga28b4yykn9gd9v12rs3l4";
+  };
+  "elm/json" = {
+    version = "1.0.0";
+    sha256 = "1g0hafkqf2q633r7ir9wxpb1lnlzskhpsyi0h5bkzj0gl072zfnb";
+  };
+  "elm/html" = {
+    version = "1.0.0";
+    sha256 = "1n3gpzmpqqdsldys4ipgyl1zacn0kbpc3g4v3hdpiyfjlgh8bf3k";
+  };
+  "elm/parser" = {
+    version = "1.0.0";
+    sha256 = "0k4zlq30lrvawqvzwbvsl0hrmwf9s832mb41z7fdspm4549dj7wc";
+  };
+  "elm/http" = {
+    version = "1.0.0";
+    sha256 = "1igmm89ialzrjib1j8xagkxalq1x2gj4l0hfxcd66mpwmvg7psl8";
+  };
+  "elm/virtual-dom" = {
+    version = "1.0.0";
+    sha256 = "0hm8g92h7z39km325dlnhk8n00nlyjkqp3r3jppr37k2k13md6aq";
+  };
+  "elm/browser" = {
+    version = "1.0.0";
+    sha256 = "1apmvyax93nvmagwj00y16zx10kfv640cxpi64xgqbgy7d2wphy4";
+  };
+  "elm/core" = {
+    version = "1.0.0";
+    sha256 = "10kr86h4v5h4p0586q406a5wbl8xvr1jyrf6097zp2wb8sv21ylw";
+  };
+  "elm/svg" = {
+    version = "1.0.0";
+    sha256 = "08x0v8p9wm699jjmsnbq69pxv3jh60j4f6fg7y6hyr7xxj85y390";
+  };
+  "elm/project-metadata-utils" = {
+    version = "1.0.0";
+    sha256 = "1d4rd4grrnbdvj9gf00h7dr6hbkjzawgkzpizfrkp1z1pyr3mvq9";
+  };
+  "elm-explorations/markdown" = {
+    version = "1.0.0";
+    sha256 = "0k3110ixa4wwf3vkkdplagwah9ypr965qxr1y147rnsc1xsxmr6y";
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/versions.dat b/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/versions.dat
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..824ab383057f
Binary files /dev/null and b/pkgs/development/compilers/elm/versions.dat differ