diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/circus/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/circus/default.nix
index 0a82238b703e..a4f96ccaf68e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/circus/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/circus/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ buildPythonPackage, fetchPypi
+{ stdenv, buildPythonPackage, fetchPypi
 , iowait, psutil, pyzmq, tornado, mock }:
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
@@ -10,7 +10,22 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     sha256 = "d1603cf4c4f620ce6593d3d2a67fad25bf0242183ea24110d8bb1c8079c55d1b";
   };
 
+  postPatch = ''
+    # relax version restrictions to fix build
+    substituteInPlace setup.py \
+      --replace "pyzmq>=13.1.0,<17.0" "pyzmq>13.1.0" \
+      --replace "tornado>=3.0,<5.0" "tornado>=3.0"
+  '';
+
+  checkInputs = [ mock ];
+
   doCheck = false; # weird error
 
-  propagatedBuildInputs = [ iowait psutil pyzmq tornado mock ];
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ iowait psutil pyzmq tornado ];
+
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+    description = "A process and socket manager";
+    homepage = "https://github.circus.com/circus-tent/circus";
+    license = licenses.asl20;
+  };
 }