I think the issue comes from grafts. Without grafts, the ASDF configuration is coherent; the path for stumpwm's sources and libraries is the same everywhere (here in stumpwm:lib and sbcl-stumpwm-cpu): --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- $ cat $(guix build --no-grafts stumpwm | grep 'lib$')/etc/common-lisp/*/50-stumpwm.conf (("/gnu/store/v18hzbid3rjblz35s69w4c0gcsx9f9w9-stumpwm-22.11-lib/share/common-lisp/sbcl/stumpwm" :**/ :*.*.*) ("/gnu/store/v18hzbid3rjblz35s69w4c0gcsx9f9w9-stumpwm-22.11-lib/lib/common-lisp/sbcl/stumpwm" :**/ :*.*.*)) (:tree "/gnu/store/v18hzbid3rjblz35s69w4c0gcsx9f9w9-stumpwm-22.11-lib/share/common-lisp/sbcl/stumpwm") $ cat $(guix build --no-grafts sbcl-stumpwm-cpu)/etc/common-lisp/*/50-stumpwm.conf (("/gnu/store/v18hzbid3rjblz35s69w4c0gcsx9f9w9-stumpwm-22.11-lib/share/common-lisp/sbcl/stumpwm" :**/ :*.*.*) ("/gnu/store/v18hzbid3rjblz35s69w4c0gcsx9f9w9-stumpwm-22.11-lib/lib/common-lisp/sbcl/stumpwm" :**/ :*.*.*)) (:tree "/gnu/store/v18hzbid3rjblz35s69w4c0gcsx9f9w9-stumpwm-22.11-lib/share/common-lisp/sbcl/stumpwm") --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- With grafts, we get different paths, which probably explains why ASDF fails to find the compiled Lisp files it is looking for: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- $ cat $(guix build stumpwm | grep 'lib$')/etc/common-lisp/*/50-stumpwm.conf (("/gnu/store/wsjyjqf20ldbmgdq96h73qikmwhxv36c-stumpwm-22.11-lib/share/common-lisp/sbcl/stumpwm" :**/ :*.*.*) ("/gnu/store/wsjyjqf20ldbmgdq96h73qikmwhxv36c-stumpwm-22.11-lib/lib/common-lisp/sbcl/stumpwm" :**/ :*.*.*)) (:tree "/gnu/store/wsjyjqf20ldbmgdq96h73qikmwhxv36c-stumpwm-22.11-lib/share/common-lisp/sbcl/stumpwm") $ cat $(guix build sbcl-stumpwm-cpu)/etc/common-lisp/*/50-stumpwm.conf (("/gnu/store/h8i8mwsgjb96r407xqa2sf56clgy7r7c-stumpwm-22.11-lib/share/common-lisp/sbcl/stumpwm" :**/ :*.*.*) ("/gnu/store/h8i8mwsgjb96r407xqa2sf56clgy7r7c-stumpwm-22.11-lib/lib/common-lisp/sbcl/stumpwm" :**/ :*.*.*)) (:tree "/gnu/store/h8i8mwsgjb96r407xqa2sf56clgy7r7c-stumpwm-22.11-lib/share/common-lisp/sbcl/stumpwm") --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---