diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/lib-python-bootstrap.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/lib-python-bootstrap.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..d004cf2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/lib-python-bootstrap.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Arch's own escape hatch for the Python packaging cycle. Sourced by the six
+# hooks that need it; not a hook itself.
+#
+# THE CYCLE. Three stage-2 builds -- brotli, libseccomp, meson -- stopped on
+#
+#   /usr/bin/python: No module named build
+#
+# and building python-build means running `python -m build`, which is
+# python-build. Its dependencies are the same: packaging and pyproject-hooks are
+# flit_core-backed, installing a wheel wants python-installer, and none of them
+# exist yet.
+#
+# On the host the cycle was already broken -- apt had python3-build -- so stage 1
+# never met it. Trying to break it there again failed for a reason worth
+# recording: `apt-cache policy python3-flit-core` returns no candidate at all.
+# Ubuntu does not package it, so the backend every one of these needs cannot be
+# installed on the host by any means. Our own python-flit-core builds fine, but
+# building a package is not installing it.
+#
+# ARCH ALREADY SOLVED THIS, and the solution is in the PKGBUILDs:
+#
+#   if (( _bootstrap == 0 )); then
+#     python -m build -wn --skip-dependency-check
+#   else
+#     cd python-bootstrap
+#     python -m bootstrap.build
+#   fi
+#
+# python-bootstrap is a vendored builder that needs none of the six. Setting
+# _bootstrap=1 is upstream's supported path through exactly this situation --
+# far better than the alternative that was half-written here first, which was a
+# per-package hook calling `python -m flit_core.wheel` and unzipping the result
+# into $pkgdir by hand. That would have been three bespoke reimplementations of
+# something the PKGBUILD already does properly.
+#
+# It also means these build on the HOST, where they had failed, so they need no
+# stage-2 special handling at all.
+set -euo pipefail
+python3 - <<'ZZPY'
+import io
+s = io.open("PKGBUILD", encoding="utf-8").read()
+old = "_bootstrap=0"
+assert s.count(old) == 1, "python bootstrap: expected one _bootstrap=0, got %d" % s.count(old)
+s = s.replace(old, "_bootstrap=1  # see patches/pkgbuild/lib-python-bootstrap.sh", 1)
+io.open("PKGBUILD", "w", encoding="utf-8").write(s)
+ZZPY
+grep -q "^_bootstrap=1" PKGBUILD || {
+    echo "python bootstrap: _bootstrap was not switched" >&2; exit 1; }
+# The branch it selects must actually exist, or the switch silently builds
+# nothing -- these PKGBUILDs are not required to have both halves.
+grep -q "bootstrap.build" PKGBUILD || {
+    echo "python bootstrap: no bootstrap.build branch in this PKGBUILD" >&2; exit 1; }
+echo "$(basename "$PWD"): _bootstrap=1 (Arch's vendored builder)"
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/python-build.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/python-build.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..46f271c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/python-build.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# One of the six packages in the Python packaging cycle. The reasoning, and the
+# edit, are shared -- see lib-python-bootstrap.sh.
+set -euo pipefail
+source "$(dirname "$0")/lib-python-bootstrap.sh"
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/python-installer.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/python-installer.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..46f271c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/python-installer.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# One of the six packages in the Python packaging cycle. The reasoning, and the
+# edit, are shared -- see lib-python-bootstrap.sh.
+set -euo pipefail
+source "$(dirname "$0")/lib-python-bootstrap.sh"
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/python-packaging.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/python-packaging.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..46f271c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/python-packaging.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# One of the six packages in the Python packaging cycle. The reasoning, and the
+# edit, are shared -- see lib-python-bootstrap.sh.
+set -euo pipefail
+source "$(dirname "$0")/lib-python-bootstrap.sh"
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/python-pyproject-hooks.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/python-pyproject-hooks.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..46f271c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/python-pyproject-hooks.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# One of the six packages in the Python packaging cycle. The reasoning, and the
+# edit, are shared -- see lib-python-bootstrap.sh.
+set -euo pipefail
+source "$(dirname "$0")/lib-python-bootstrap.sh"
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/python-setuptools.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/python-setuptools.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..46f271c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/python-setuptools.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# One of the six packages in the Python packaging cycle. The reasoning, and the
+# edit, are shared -- see lib-python-bootstrap.sh.
+set -euo pipefail
+source "$(dirname "$0")/lib-python-bootstrap.sh"
diff --git a/patches/pkgbuild/python-wheel.sh b/patches/pkgbuild/python-wheel.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..46f271c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/pkgbuild/python-wheel.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# One of the six packages in the Python packaging cycle. The reasoning, and the
+# edit, are shared -- see lib-python-bootstrap.sh.
+set -euo pipefail
+source "$(dirname "$0")/lib-python-bootstrap.sh"