diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 6e7bf5f0b..4f15e0c16 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -451,6 +451,7 @@ name = "lix"
 version = "0.0.0"
 dependencies = [
  "lix-doc",
+ "pkg-config",
  "regex",
  "rootcause",
  "rustyline",
@@ -568,6 +569,12 @@ version = "2.3.2"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "9b4f627cb1b25917193a259e49bdad08f671f8d9708acfd5fe0a8c1455d87220"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "pkg-config"
+version = "0.3.33"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "19f132c84eca552bf34cab8ec81f1c1dcc229b811638f9d283dceabe58c5569e"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "proc-macro2"
 version = "1.0.106"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index a73c15ba2..8f8a653ce 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ rustyline = "18"
 rustyline-derive = "0.12"
 syn = "2.0"
 zngur = "0.10"
+pkg-config = "0.3.33"
 
 [profile.dev]
 opt-level = 1
diff --git a/justfile b/justfile
index b456b6a85..70f81e92a 100644
--- a/justfile
+++ b/justfile
@@ -56,6 +56,12 @@ test-integration *OPTIONS: (test "--suite" "installcheck" OPTIONS)
 test-functional2 *OPTIONS:
     cd tests/functional2 && python -m pytest -v "$@"
 
+# special target for cargo because meson cannot be convinced to not mangle cargo test output,
+# and getting properly colored test output any other way also doesn't look all that possible.
+[positional-arguments]
+test-rs *OPTIONS:
+    meson test -C {{ builddir }} --interactive lix-rs-tests "$@"
+
 # Lint with `clang-tidy`
 lint:
     ninja -C build clang-tidy
diff --git a/lix/lix-rs/Cargo.toml b/lix/lix-rs/Cargo.toml
index 2bd2ed0bf..4e656d9bb 100644
--- a/lix/lix-rs/Cargo.toml
+++ b/lix/lix-rs/Cargo.toml
@@ -19,3 +19,4 @@ rustyline-derive.workspace = true
 
 [build-dependencies]
 zngur.workspace = true
+pkg-config.workspace = true
diff --git a/lix/lix-rs/build.rs b/lix/lix-rs/build.rs
index 9a96a3a22..d833793cf 100644
--- a/lix/lix-rs/build.rs
+++ b/lix/lix-rs/build.rs
@@ -13,4 +13,34 @@ fn main() {
         .expect("read main.zng.rs"),
     )
     .expect("write generated.rs");
+
+    println!("cargo::rerun-if-env-changed=CXX_LINK_DIR_FOR_TEST");
+    if let Some(dir) = env::var("CXX_LINK_DIR_FOR_TEST").ok() {
+        println!("cargo::rustc-link-search={}", dir);
+        println!("cargo::rustc-link-lib=static=lix_cpp_static");
+    }
+
+    // pull link args for each dependency we'll need to fully link.
+    println!("cargo::rerun-if-env-changed=CXX_LINK_LIBS_FOR_TEST");
+    for dep in env::var("CXX_LINK_LIBS_FOR_TEST")
+        .ok()
+        .into_iter()
+        .flat_map(|s| s.split(':').map(|s| s.to_string()).collect::<Vec<_>>())
+    {
+        // meson has already checked that everything we need exists
+        let _ = pkg_config::probe_library(&dep);
+    }
+
+    // explicitly pass sanitizer args. we can't use -Zsanitizer or -Zexternal-clangrt
+    // even with RUSTC_BOOTSTRAP because that will confuse the hell out of dependency
+    // crate tests when they're run. since we only need this for our own tests we can
+    // be quite careless about unnecessary dependencies, so just splat all arguments.
+    println!("cargo::rerun-if-env-changed=CXX_TEST_SANITIZERS");
+    for arg in env::var("CXX_TEST_SANITIZERS")
+        .ok()
+        .iter()
+        .flat_map(|s| s.split(':'))
+    {
+        println!("cargo::rustc-link-arg={arg}");
+    }
 }
diff --git a/lix/meson.build b/lix/meson.build
index 45689caba..a3f4ac10e 100644
--- a/lix/meson.build
+++ b/lix/meson.build
@@ -176,22 +176,6 @@ lixrs = custom_target(
   env : lixrs_cargo_env,
 )
 
-if meson.can_run_host_binaries()
-  test(
-    'lix-rs-tests',
-    cargo,
-    args : [
-      'test',
-      '--all', '--all-targets',
-      '--no-fail-fast',
-      cargo_jobs_args,
-    ],
-    suite : 'check',
-    env : lixrs_cargo_env,
-    timeout : 300,
-  )
-endif
-
 liblix_cpp_static = static_library(
   'lix_cpp_static',
   liblix_sources,
@@ -204,6 +188,34 @@ liblix_cpp_static = static_library(
   cpp_pch : cpp_pch,
 )
 
+if meson.can_run_host_binaries()
+  lixrs_test_deps = []
+  foreach dep : dependencies.flatten()
+    lixrs_test_deps += dep.name()
+  endforeach
+
+  test(
+    'lix-rs-tests',
+    cargo,
+    args : [
+      'test',
+      '--all', '--all-targets',
+      '--no-fail-fast',
+      cargo_jobs_args,
+    ],
+    depends : [
+      liblix_cpp_static,
+    ],
+    suite : 'check',
+    env : lixrs_cargo_env + {
+      'CXX_LINK_DIR_FOR_TEST': meson.current_build_dir(),
+      'CXX_LINK_LIBS_FOR_TEST': lixrs_test_deps,
+      'CXX_TEST_SANITIZERS': cargo_sanitizer_args,
+    },
+    timeout : 300,
+  )
+endif
+
 if is_darwin
   lixrs_link_args = [ '-Wl,-force_load,lix/liblixrs.a' ]
 else
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index a5833eaaa..ce4d3422d 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -687,6 +687,9 @@ add_project_arguments(
   language : 'cpp',
 )
 
+sanitize_args = []
+cargo_sanitizer_args = []
+
 # 2024-03-24: jade benchmarked the default sanitize reporting in clang and got
 # a regression of about 10% on hackage-packages.nix with clang. So if the
 # signed-integer-overflow sanitizer is requested (our default), we trap instead.
@@ -703,6 +706,11 @@ endif
 # GCC defaults to shared libsan so is fine.
 if cxx.get_id() == 'clang' and get_option('b_sanitize') != ''
   add_project_link_arguments('-shared-libsan', language : 'cpp')
+  cargo_sanitizer_args = [
+    '-shared-libsan',
+    '-fsanitize=' + get_option('b_sanitize'),
+    sanitize_args,
+  ]
 endif
 
 # Clang gets grumpy about missing libasan symbols if -shared-libasan is not