diff --git a/package.nix b/package.nix
index 2a5a7143c..d9e7678c2 100644
--- a/package.nix
+++ b/package.nix
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
   # anyway, but also allows easily overriding the patch logic.
   boehmgc-nix ? __forDefaults.boehmgc-nix,
   boehmgc,
+  buildPackages,
   nlohmann_json,
   build-release-notes ? __forDefaults.build-release-notes,
   boost,
@@ -178,6 +179,14 @@ let
     ./tests/unit
     (fileset.fileFilter (f: lib.strings.hasPrefix "nix-profile" f.name) ./scripts)
   ];
+
+  # python3.withPackages does not splice properly, see https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/305858
+  lixPythonForBuild = python3.pythonOnBuildForHost.withPackages (p: [
+    p.pytest
+    p.pytest-xdist
+    p.python-frontmatter
+    p.aiohttp
+  ]);
 in
 assert (lintInsteadOfBuild -> lix-clang-tidy != null);
 stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
@@ -247,12 +256,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
 
   nativeBuildInputs =
     [
-      # python3.withPackages does not splice properly, see https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/305858
-      (python3.pythonOnBuildForHost.withPackages (p: [
-        p.pytest
-        p.pytest-xdist
-        p.python-frontmatter
-      ]))
+      lixPythonForBuild
       meson
       ninja
       cmake
@@ -328,7 +332,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
 
   propagatedBuildInputs = lib.optionals (!finalAttrs.dontBuild) maybePropagatedInputs;
 
-  disallowedReferences = [ boost ];
+  disallowedReferences = [
+    boost
+    buildPackages.python3
+    lixPythonForBuild
+  ];
 
   # Needed for Meson to find Boost.
   # https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/86131.
@@ -505,9 +513,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
             # wrapped python instead of build inputs for its python inputs
             p.pytest
             p.pytest-xdist
+            p.aiohttp
+            p.python-frontmatter
 
             p.yapf
-            p.python-frontmatter
             p.requests
             p.xdg-base-dirs
             p.packaging
diff --git a/tests/functional2/testlib/fixtures.py b/tests/functional2/testlib/fixtures/__init__.py
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/functional2/testlib/fixtures.py
rename to tests/functional2/testlib/fixtures/__init__.py
diff --git a/tests/functional2/testlib/fixtures/http_server.py b/tests/functional2/testlib/fixtures/http_server.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..857772975
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/functional2/testlib/fixtures/http_server.py
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+"""
+HTTP server fixture for tests which binds to an auto-assigned port on localhost.
+"""
+import asyncio
+import contextlib
+import dataclasses
+import time
+import socket
+import threading
+from typing import Tuple
+from queue import Queue
+import aiohttp.web as web
+
+
+@dataclasses.dataclass
+class HttpServer:
+    app: web.Application
+    port: int
+
+
+class Event_ts(asyncio.Event):
+    """
+    A thread safe version of the asyncio Event
+
+    NOTE: clear() is not thread safe
+
+    Taken from https://stackoverflow.com/a/33006667
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self,
+                 *args,
+                 loop: asyncio.AbstractEventLoop | None = None,
+                 **kwargs):
+        """
+        Creates a thread-safe event for the given loop (or the loop of the current thread).
+        """
+        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+        self.target_loop = loop or asyncio.get_running_loop()
+
+    def set(self):
+        self.target_loop.call_soon_threadsafe(super().set)
+
+
+def _make_localhost_socket() -> Tuple[socket.socket, int]:
+    """Creates a localhost-bound socket with an auto-assigned port."""
+    sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET6, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
+    sock.bind(('::1', 0))
+    # Shouldn't matter because we dynamically allocate ports, but this is generally preferred.
+    sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
+    _, port = sock.getsockname()[:2]
+
+    return (sock, port)
+
+
+def _server_thread(app: web.Application, sock: socket.socket,
+                   shutdown_ev_q: Queue):
+
+    async def async_main():
+        nonlocal app, sock
+        # Due to Reasons(tm) of event loop lifecycles and stuff of the sort,
+        # it's far easier to just send the event object to the other thread
+        # from inside the loop where it already knows which loop it is.
+        shutdown_ev = Event_ts()
+        shutdown_ev_q.put(shutdown_ev)
+
+        runner = web.AppRunner(app, handle_signals=False)
+        await runner.setup()
+        site = web.SockSite(runner, sock)
+        await site.start()
+        await shutdown_ev.wait()
+        await runner.cleanup()
+
+    asyncio.run(async_main())
+
+
+@contextlib.contextmanager
+def http_server(app: web.Application):
+    """
+    Creates an http server on an automatically chosen port on the host
+    running the given web.Application, gives you the port for it.
+
+    The server is run on a separate thread.
+    """
+    # n.b. pytest doesn't directly support asyncio. There's a bunch of
+    # complexity that we could go through to do this or we could just throw the
+    # async on a thread which was what we would do to the web server anyway if
+    # it was blocking.
+    shutdown_ev_q = Queue()
+    thr = None
+    sock = None
+    shutdown_ev = None
+    try:
+        sock, port = _make_localhost_socket()
+        thr = threading.Thread(target=_server_thread,
+                               args=(app, sock, shutdown_ev_q),
+                               name=f'functional2 httpd [::1]:{port}')
+        thr.start()
+        shutdown_ev = shutdown_ev_q.get()
+        yield HttpServer(app=app, port=port)
+    finally:
+        if shutdown_ev:
+            shutdown_ev.set()
+        if thr:
+            thr.join()
+        if sock:
+            sock.close()
+
+
+def dev_main():
+    """A little test server for poking at this manually"""
+
+    async def root(_req: web.Request):
+        return web.Response(body='hello world')
+
+    app = web.Application()
+    app.add_routes([web.get('/', root)])
+
+    with http_server(app) as httpd:
+        print(f'Listening on http://[::1]:{httpd.port}')
+        time.sleep(3600)
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    dev_main()