diff --git a/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/core/gjs/default.nix b/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/core/gjs/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e4a0752eb4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/core/gjs/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+{ fetchurl, stdenv, pkgconfig, gnome3, gobjectIntrospection, spidermonkey_17 }:
+
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  name = "gjs-1.38.1";
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = "mirror://gnome/sources/gjs/1.38/${name}.tar.xz";
+    sha256 = "0xl1zc5ncaxqs5ww5j82rzqrg429l8pdapqclxiba7dxwyh6a83b";
+  };
+
+  buildInputs = with gnome3;
+    [ gobjectIntrospection pkgconfig glib  ];
+
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ spidermonkey_17 ];
+
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+    platforms = platforms.linux;
+  };
+
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/default.nix b/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/default.nix
index 016a9bf49ff..47656da0992 100644
--- a/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/default.nix
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ rec {
 
   gdm = callPackage ./core/gdm { };
 
+  gjs = callPackage ./core/gjs { };
+
   gnome_icon_theme = callPackage ./core/gnome-icon-theme { };
 
   gnome-menus = callPackage ./core/gnome-menus { };
diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/spidermonkey/17.0.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/spidermonkey/17.0.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..3f484426a10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/spidermonkey/17.0.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, pkgconfig, nspr, perl, python, zip }:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  version = "17.0.0";
+  name = "spidermonkey-${version}";
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = "http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/js/mozjs${version}.tar.gz";
+    sha256 = "1fig2wf4f10v43mqx67y68z6h77sy900d1w0pz9qarrqx57rc7ij";
+  };
+
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ nspr ];
+
+  buildInputs = [ pkgconfig perl python zip ];
+
+  postUnpack = "sourceRoot=\${sourceRoot}/js/src";
+
+  preConfigure = ''
+    export NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE="$NIX_CFLAGS_COMPILE -I${nspr}/include/nspr"
+    export LIBXUL_DIST=$out
+  '';
+
+  configureFlags = [ "--enable-threadsafe" "--with-system-nspr" ];
+
+  # hack around a make problem, see https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/1279#issuecomment-29547393
+  preBuild = "touch -- {.,shell,jsapi-tests}/{-lpthread,-ldl}";
+
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+  doCheck = true;
+  preCheck = "rm jit-test/tests/sunspider/check-date-format-tofte.js"; # https://bugzil.la/600522
+
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+    description = "Mozilla's JavaScript engine written in C/C++";
+    homepage = https://developer.mozilla.org/en/SpiderMonkey;
+    # TODO: MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license.
+    maintainers = [ maintainers.goibhniu ];
+  };
+}
+
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 39ce332ea87..94e323d356e 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -3403,6 +3403,7 @@ let
   spidermonkey = callPackage ../development/interpreters/spidermonkey { };
   spidermonkey_1_8_0rc1 = callPackage ../development/interpreters/spidermonkey/1.8.0-rc1.nix { };
   spidermonkey_185 = callPackage ../development/interpreters/spidermonkey/185-1.0.0.nix { };
+  spidermonkey_17 = callPackage ../development/interpreters/spidermonkey/17.0.nix { };
 
   supercollider = callPackage ../development/interpreters/supercollider {
     qt = qt4;