diff --git a/internal/rosa/rosa.go b/internal/rosa/rosa.go
index 51de7648..b6a2c023 100644
--- a/internal/rosa/rosa.go
+++ b/internal/rosa/rosa.go
@@ -199,6 +199,10 @@ func lastIndexFunc[S ~[]E, E any](s S, f func(E) bool) (i int) {
 
 // fixupEnviron fixes up PATH, prepends extras and returns the resulting slice.
 func fixupEnviron(env, extras []string, paths ...string) []string {
+	// some python tools try to be clever and buffers their output, making the
+	// build process appear to hang
+	env = append(env, "PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1")
+
 	const pathPrefix = "PATH="
 	pathVal := strings.Join(paths, ":")