I'm having some difficulty with populating the sqlite database from
within guix pull. I have sent a WIP patch to
https://issues.guix.info/issue/39258 . Let's continue the conversation
there.

> You could write a hook similar to ‘generate-package-cache’ and commit it
> locally.  Then you can run:
>
>   ./pre-inst-env guix pull --url=$PWD --branch=the-right-branch -p /tmp/test
>
> (You need ./pre-inst-env so that the hook actually runs.)

Thank you, I'm using this now.