diff --git a/internal/rosa/llvm.go b/internal/rosa/llvm.go
index 40167181..52e14131 100644
--- a/internal/rosa/llvm.go
+++ b/internal/rosa/llvm.go
@@ -17,11 +17,12 @@ var (
 	_earlyRuntimes   = H("early-runtimes")
 	_musl            = H("musl")
 
-	_bash      = H("bash")
-	_gawk      = H("gawk")
-	_coreutils = H("coreutils")
-	_diffutils = H("diffutils")
-	_findutils = H("findutils")
+	_bash        = H("bash")
+	_gawk        = H("gawk")
+	_pythonEarly = H("python-early")
+	_coreutils   = H("coreutils")
+	_diffutils   = H("diffutils")
+	_findutils   = H("findutils")
 
 	_zlib          = H("zlib")
 	_zstd          = H("zstd")
@@ -124,7 +125,7 @@ ln -s \
 	"/work/system/lib/${ROSA_TRIPLE}/crtendS.o"
 `,
 		},
-			_python,
+			_pythonEarly,
 
 			_muslHeaders,
 			_kernelHeaders,
@@ -180,7 +181,7 @@ ln -s \
 			},
 			SkipTest: true,
 		},
-			_python,
+			_pythonEarly,
 
 			_zlib,
 			_zstd,
@@ -367,7 +368,7 @@ ln -s clang++ /work/system/bin/c++
 
 			Test: "ninja " + jobsFlagE + " " + loadFlagE + " check-all",
 		},
-			_python,
+			_pythonEarly,
 			_perl,
 			_diffutils,
 			_bash,
diff --git a/internal/rosa/llvm_test.go b/internal/rosa/llvm_test.go
index 5af4265c..ef81d987 100644
--- a/internal/rosa/llvm_test.go
+++ b/internal/rosa/llvm_test.go
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ import (
 )
 
 func TestLLVMInputs(t *testing.T) {
-	const wantInputCount = 550
+	const wantInputCount = 431
 
 	_, llvm := rosa.Native().Std().MustLoad(rosa.H("llvm"))
 	var n int
diff --git a/internal/rosa/package/ninja.az b/internal/rosa/package/ninja.az
index cb103656..2c1bd8b3 100644
--- a/internal/rosa/package/ninja.az
+++ b/internal/rosa/package/ninja.az
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ cp ninja /work/system/bin/`;
 	};
 
 	inputs = [
-		python,
+		python-early,
 		bash,
 	];
 }
diff --git a/internal/rosa/package/python/package.az b/internal/rosa/package/python/package.az
index 40c12f74..b10d6cce 100644
--- a/internal/rosa/package/python/package.az
+++ b/internal/rosa/package/python/package.az
@@ -73,6 +73,76 @@ package python {
 	];
 }
 
+package python-early {
+	description = "minimal python interpreter exclusive to the bootstrap path";
+	website = "https://www.python.org";
+	exclude = true;
+	anitya = 13254;
+	block = "exclusive to the bootstrap path";
+
+	version# = "3.14.6";
+	source = remoteTar {
+		url = "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/"+version+
+			"/Python-"+version+".tgz";
+		checksum = "yynwXnElUvlAweA_RkBKQY35P59Gu5YU6ickJs6Z-blIoHgw5KgKXROY1gq2w0ez";
+		compress = gzip;
+	};
+
+	// test_synopsis_sourceless assumes this is writable and checks __pycache__
+	writable = true;
+	chmod = true;
+
+	env = [
+		"EXTRATESTOPTS=-j0 -x " + join {
+			elems = [
+				// requires internet access (http://www.pythontest.net/)
+				"test_asyncio",
+				"test_socket",
+				"test_urllib2",
+				"test_urllibnet",
+				"test_urllib2net",
+
+				// makes assumptions about uid_map/gid_map
+				"test_os",
+				"test_subprocess",
+
+				// insane strict_timestamps default
+				"test_zipfile",
+
+				// requires gcc
+				"test_ctypes",
+
+				// breaks on llvm
+				"test_dbm_gnu",
+			];
+			sep = " -x ";
+		},
+
+		// _ctypes appears to infer something from the linker name
+		"LDFLAGS=-Wl,--dynamic-linker=/system/lib/" +
+			"ld-musl-" + linuxArch + ".so.1",
+	];
+
+	exec = make {
+		check = [ "test" ];
+		postInstall = "ln -s python3 /work/system/bin/python";
+	};
+
+	inputs = [
+		zlib,
+		bzip2,
+		libffi,
+
+		kernel-headers,
+	];
+
+	runtime = [
+		zlib,
+		bzip2,
+		libffi,
+	];
+}
+
 package python-setuptools {
 	description = "the autotools of the Python ecosystem";
 	website = "https://pypi.org/project/setuptools";