diff --git a/src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc b/src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc
index 483796f0b..a06d931db 100644
--- a/src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc
+++ b/src/libfetchers/fetchers.cc
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 #include "input-accessor.hh"
 #include "source-path.hh"
 #include "fetch-to-store.hh"
+#include "json-utils.hh"
 
 #include <nlohmann/json.hpp>
 
@@ -412,3 +413,20 @@ std::string publicKeys_to_string(const std::vector<PublicKey>& publicKeys)
 }
 
 }
+
+namespace nlohmann {
+
+using namespace nix;
+
+fetchers::PublicKey adl_serializer<fetchers::PublicKey>::from_json(const json & json) {
+    auto type = optionalValueAt(json, "type").value_or("ssh-ed25519");
+    auto key = valueAt(json, "key");
+    return fetchers::PublicKey { getString(type), getString(key) };
+}
+
+void adl_serializer<fetchers::PublicKey>::to_json(json & json, fetchers::PublicKey p) {
+    json["type"] = p.type;
+    json["key"] = p.key;
+}
+
+}
diff --git a/src/libfetchers/fetchers.hh b/src/libfetchers/fetchers.hh
index cd11f9eae..bb21c68cc 100644
--- a/src/libfetchers/fetchers.hh
+++ b/src/libfetchers/fetchers.hh
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 #include "types.hh"
 #include "hash.hh"
 #include "canon-path.hh"
+#include "json-impls.hh"
 #include "attrs.hh"
 #include "url.hh"
 
@@ -230,8 +231,9 @@ struct PublicKey
     std::string type = "ssh-ed25519";
     std::string key;
 };
-NLOHMANN_DEFINE_TYPE_NON_INTRUSIVE_WITH_DEFAULT(PublicKey, type, key)
 
 std::string publicKeys_to_string(const std::vector<PublicKey>&);
 
 }
+
+JSON_IMPL(fetchers::PublicKey)