diff --git a/doc/doc-support/package.nix b/doc/doc-support/package.nix
index bc5566f3cbd3..f316656a585c 100644
--- a/doc/doc-support/package.nix
+++ b/doc/doc-support/package.nix
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ stdenvNoCC.mkDerivation (
       shell =
         let
           devmode' = devmode.override {
-            buildArgs = "./.";
+            buildArgs = toString ../.;
             open = "/share/doc/nixpkgs/manual.html";
           };
           nixos-render-docs-redirects' = writeShellScriptBin "redirects" "${lib.getExe nixos-render-docs-redirects} --file ${toString ../redirects.json} $@";
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/shell.nix b/nixos/doc/manual/shell.nix
index 4f6ab400f22c..6e9d253e4718 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/shell.nix
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/shell.nix
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ let
   common = import ./common.nix;
   inherit (common) outputPath indexPath;
   devmode = pkgs.devmode.override {
-    buildArgs = "../../release.nix -A manualHTML.${builtins.currentSystem}";
+    buildArgs = ''${toString ../../release.nix} -A manualHTML.${builtins.currentSystem}'';
     open = "/${outputPath}/${indexPath}";
   };
   nixos-render-docs-redirects = pkgs.writeShellScriptBin "redirects" "${pkgs.lib.getExe pkgs.nixos-render-docs-redirects} --file ${toString ./redirects.json} $@";