diff --git a/src/libstore/build-result.hh b/src/libstore/build-result.hh
index a5749cf33ca..dd326c07f8a 100644
--- a/src/libstore/build-result.hh
+++ b/src/libstore/build-result.hh
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ struct BuildResult
 
     /* User and system CPU time the build took. */
     std::optional<std::chrono::microseconds> cpuUser, cpuSystem;
+    std::optional<uint64_t> memoryHigh;
 
     bool success()
     {
diff --git a/src/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc b/src/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc
index c9b7b24f344..01a4ff11fa0 100644
--- a/src/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/build/local-derivation-goal.cc
@@ -154,6 +154,7 @@ void LocalDerivationGoal::killSandbox(bool getStats)
         if (getStats) {
             buildResult.cpuUser = stats.cpuUser;
             buildResult.cpuSystem = stats.cpuSystem;
+            buildResult.memoryHigh = stats.memoryHigh;
         }
         #else
         abort();
@@ -415,6 +416,7 @@ void LocalDerivationGoal::startBuilder()
             throw Error("cannot determine cgroup name from /proc/self/cgroup");
 
         auto ourCgroupPath = canonPath("/sys/fs/cgroup/" + ourCgroup);
+        ourCgroupPath = dirOf(ourCgroupPath);
 
         if (!pathExists(ourCgroupPath))
             throw Error("expected cgroup directory '%s'", ourCgroupPath);
@@ -720,6 +722,15 @@ void LocalDerivationGoal::startBuilder()
             chownToBuilder(*cgroup);
             chownToBuilder(*cgroup + "/cgroup.procs");
             chownToBuilder(*cgroup + "/cgroup.threads");
+            auto parentCgroup = dirOf(*cgroup);
+            writeFile(parentCgroup + "/cgroup.subtree_control", "+memory");
+            writeFile(*cgroup + "/memory.oom.group", "1");
+            if (settings.memoryHigh) {
+              writeFile(*cgroup + "/memory.high", fmt("%d", settings.memoryHigh));
+            }
+            if (settings.memoryMax) {
+              writeFile(*cgroup + "/memory.max", fmt("%d", settings.memoryMax));
+            }
             //chownToBuilder(*cgroup + "/cgroup.subtree_control");
         }
 
@@ -751,7 +762,14 @@ void LocalDerivationGoal::startBuilder()
             stExtraChrootDirs
         };
         auto state = stBegin;
-        auto lines = runProgram(settings.preBuildHook, false, args);
+        auto hookEnv = getEnv();
+        if (cgroup) hookEnv["NIX_CGROUP"] = *cgroup;
+        auto res = runProgram(RunOptions {.program = settings.preBuildHook, .searchPath = false, .args = args, .environment = hookEnv, .input = {} });
+
+        if (!statusOk(res.first))
+            throw ExecError(res.first, "program '%1%' %2%", settings.preBuildHook, statusToString(res.first));
+
+        auto lines = res.second;
         auto lastPos = std::string::size_type{0};
         for (auto nlPos = lines.find('\n'); nlPos != std::string::npos;
                 nlPos = lines.find('\n', lastPos))
diff --git a/src/libstore/cgroup.cc b/src/libstore/cgroup.cc
index f693d77bee4..80b94a67e8c 100644
--- a/src/libstore/cgroup.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/cgroup.cc
@@ -113,6 +113,11 @@ static CgroupStats destroyCgroup(const Path & cgroup, bool returnStats)
             }
         }
 
+        auto memoryhighPath = cgroup + "/memory.high";
+        if (pathExists(memoryhighPath)) {
+          stats.memoryHigh = string2Int<uint64_t>(trim(readFile(memoryhighPath)));
+        }
+        debug("memory events %s", readFile(cgroup + "/memory.events"));
     }
 
     if (rmdir(cgroup.c_str()) == -1)
diff --git a/src/libstore/cgroup.hh b/src/libstore/cgroup.hh
index 3ead4735f52..05a38742af5 100644
--- a/src/libstore/cgroup.hh
+++ b/src/libstore/cgroup.hh
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ std::map<std::string, std::string> getCgroups(const Path & cgroupFile);
 struct CgroupStats
 {
     std::optional<std::chrono::microseconds> cpuUser, cpuSystem;
+    std::optional<uint64_t> memoryHigh;
 };
 
 /* Destroy the cgroup denoted by 'path'. The postcondition is that
diff --git a/src/libstore/globals.hh b/src/libstore/globals.hh
index b40dcfa77da..ee859ae5bbe 100644
--- a/src/libstore/globals.hh
+++ b/src/libstore/globals.hh
@@ -313,6 +313,22 @@ public:
           `uid-range` system feature.
         )"
     };
+
+    Setting<uint64_t> memoryHigh{
+        this, 0, "memory-high",
+        R"(
+          sets the cgroup memory.high limit, causing the build to throttle if exceeded
+          depends on use-cgroups=true
+        )"
+    };
+
+    Setting<uint64_t> memoryMax{
+        this, 0, "memory-max",
+        R"(
+          sets the cgroup memory.max limit, causing the build to be killed if exceeded
+          depends on use-cgroups=true
+        )"
+    };
     #endif
 
     Setting<bool> impersonateLinux26{this, false, "impersonate-linux-26",
diff --git a/src/nix/build.cc b/src/nix/build.cc
index 94b169167e6..4f6e0234ec1 100644
--- a/src/nix/build.cc
+++ b/src/nix/build.cc
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ nlohmann::json builtPathsWithResultToJSON(const std::vector<BuiltPathWithResult>
                     j["cpuUser"] = ((double) b.result->cpuUser->count()) / 1000000;
                 if (b.result->cpuSystem)
                     j["cpuSystem"] = ((double) b.result->cpuSystem->count()) / 1000000;
+                if (b.result->memoryHigh) j["memoryHigh"] = *b.result->memoryHigh;
             }
             res.push_back(j);
         }, b.path.raw());