diff --git a/pkgs/clan-vm-manager/bin/clan-vm-manager b/pkgs/clan-vm-manager/bin/clan-vm-manager
index 3b35422b3..a6c6a17ba 100755
--- a/pkgs/clan-vm-manager/bin/clan-vm-manager
+++ b/pkgs/clan-vm-manager/bin/clan-vm-manager
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
-import os
 import sys
+from pathlib import Path
 
-sys.path.insert(
-    0, os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))))
-)
+module_path = Path(__file__).parent.parent.absolute()
+
+sys.path.insert(0, str(module_path))
+sys.path.insert(0, str(module_path.parent / "clan_cli"))
 
 from clan_vm_manager import main  # NOQA
 
diff --git a/pkgs/clan-vm-manager/shell.nix b/pkgs/clan-vm-manager/shell.nix
index 878ae09c3..11296fb73 100644
--- a/pkgs/clan-vm-manager/shell.nix
+++ b/pkgs/clan-vm-manager/shell.nix
@@ -1,14 +1,14 @@
-{ clan-vm-manager, clan-cli, mkShell, ruff, python3 }:
-let
-  pythonWithDeps = python3.withPackages (ps: clan-vm-manager.propagatedBuildInputs);
-in
+{ clan-vm-manager, clan-cli, mkShell, ruff }:
 mkShell {
-  buildInputs = [ pythonWithDeps ] ++ clan-vm-manager.buildInputs;
+  inherit (clan-vm-manager) propagatedBuildInputs buildInputs;
   nativeBuildInputs = [
     ruff
   ] ++ clan-vm-manager.nativeBuildInputs;
 
   shellHook = ''
     ln -sfT ${clan-cli.nixpkgs} ../clan-cli/clan_cli/nixpkgs
+
+    # prepend clan-cli for development
+    export PYTHONPATH=../clan-cli:$PYTHONPATH
   '';
 }