diff --git a/crates/pile-value/build.rs b/crates/pile-value/build.rs
index c15a285..06351f9 100644
--- a/crates/pile-value/build.rs
+++ b/crates/pile-value/build.rs
@@ -23,6 +23,13 @@ fn main() {
 		.expect("unexpected OUT_DIR structure")
 		.to_path_buf();
 
+	// If PDFIUM_LIB_DIR is set (e.g. by Nix), use the pre-installed library directly.
+	if let Ok(lib_dir) = env::var("PDFIUM_LIB_DIR") {
+		println!("cargo:rustc-link-search=native={lib_dir}");
+		println!("cargo:rustc-link-lib=dylib=pdfium");
+		return;
+	}
+
 	let lib_path = profile_dir.join("libpdfium.so");
 
 	if !lib_path.exists() {
diff --git a/default.nix b/default.nix
index 5afc1fc..58e6270 100644
--- a/default.nix
+++ b/default.nix
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ pileRustPlatform.buildRustPackage {
 
   cargoLock.lockFile = ./Cargo.lock;
 
+  PDFIUM_LIB_DIR = "${pkgs.pdfium-binaries}/lib";
+
   buildInputs = [
     pkgs.pdfium-binaries
     pkgs.openssl