diff --git a/tvix/eval/src/builtins/mod.rs b/tvix/eval/src/builtins/mod.rs
index d75249e94..341ee6096 100644
--- a/tvix/eval/src/builtins/mod.rs
+++ b/tvix/eval/src/builtins/mod.rs
@@ -121,6 +121,9 @@ mod pure_builtins {
 
     #[builtin("attrNames")]
     async fn builtin_attr_names(co: GenCo, set: Value) -> Result<Value, ErrorKind> {
+        if set.is_catchable() {
+            return Ok(set);
+        }
         let xs = set.to_attrs()?;
         let mut output = Vec::with_capacity(xs.len());
 
diff --git a/tvix/eval/src/tests/tvix_tests/eval-okay-catchable-in-attrNames.exp b/tvix/eval/src/tests/tvix_tests/eval-okay-catchable-in-attrNames.exp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c508d5366
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tvix/eval/src/tests/tvix_tests/eval-okay-catchable-in-attrNames.exp
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+false
diff --git a/tvix/eval/src/tests/tvix_tests/eval-okay-catchable-in-attrNames.nix b/tvix/eval/src/tests/tvix_tests/eval-okay-catchable-in-attrNames.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..75531d56a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tvix/eval/src/tests/tvix_tests/eval-okay-catchable-in-attrNames.nix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+(builtins.tryEval (builtins.attrNames (throw "fred"))).success