diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/database/pgcli/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pgcli/default.nix
similarity index 91%
rename from pkgs/development/tools/database/pgcli/default.nix
rename to pkgs/development/python-modules/pgcli/default.nix
index 6b9aeb9d41ed..70e52493315e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/database/pgcli/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/pgcli/default.nix
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@
 , mock
 }:
 
+# this is a pythonPackage because of the ipython line magics in pgcli.magic
+# integrating with ipython-sql
 buildPythonPackage rec {
   pname = "pgcli";
   version = "3.4.1";
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 3f7b1251e0a5..677fa5040636 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -16049,7 +16049,7 @@ with pkgs;
 
   peg = callPackage ../development/tools/parsing/peg { };
 
-  pgcli = pkgs.python3Packages.pgcli;
+  pgcli = with pkgs.python3Packages; toPythonApplication pgcli;
 
   picotool = callPackage ../development/tools/picotool { };
 
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index 872a35c0d357..135ba62b8e04 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -6421,7 +6421,7 @@ in {
 
   pg8000 = callPackage ../development/python-modules/pg8000 { };
 
-  pgcli = callPackage ../development/tools/database/pgcli { };
+  pgcli = callPackage ../development/python-modules/pgcli { };
 
   pglast = callPackage ../development/python-modules/pglast { };