diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/au/auto-patchelf/source/auto-patchelf.py b/pkgs/by-name/au/auto-patchelf/source/auto-patchelf.py
index 938ea631011863..b72c4ef022ccdd 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/au/auto-patchelf/source/auto-patchelf.py
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/au/auto-patchelf/source/auto-patchelf.py
@@ -317,6 +317,7 @@ def auto_patchelf(
         ignore_missing: list[str] = [],
         append_rpaths: list[Path] = [],
         keep_libc: bool = False,
+        add_existing: bool = True,
         extra_args: list[str] = []) -> None:
 
     if not paths_to_patch:
@@ -324,7 +325,9 @@ def auto_patchelf(
 
     # Add all shared objects of the current output path to the cache,
     # before lib_dirs, so that they are chosen first in find_dependency.
-    populate_cache(paths_to_patch, recursive)
+    if add_existing:
+        populate_cache(paths_to_patch, recursive)
+
     populate_cache(lib_dirs)
 
     dependencies = []
@@ -362,30 +365,46 @@ def main() -> None:
         "--ignore-missing",
         nargs="*",
         type=str,
-        help="Do not fail when some dependencies are not found.")
+        default=[],
+        help="Do not fail when some dependencies are not found."
+    )
     parser.add_argument(
         "--no-recurse",
         dest="recursive",
         action="store_false",
-        help="Disable the recursive traversal of paths to patch.")
+        help="Disable the recursive traversal of paths to patch."
+    )
     parser.add_argument(
-        "--paths", nargs="*", type=Path,
+        "--paths",
+        nargs="*",
+        type=Path,
+        required=True,
         help="Paths whose content needs to be patched."
              " Single files and directories are accepted."
-             " Directories are traversed recursively by default.")
+             " Directories are traversed recursively by default."
+    )
     parser.add_argument(
-        "--libs", nargs="*", type=Path,
+        "--libs",
+        nargs="*",
+        type=Path,
+        default=[],
         help="Paths where libraries are searched for."
              " Single files and directories are accepted."
-             " Directories are not searched recursively.")
+             " Directories are not searched recursively."
+    )
     parser.add_argument(
-        "--runtime-dependencies", nargs="*", type=Path,
+        "--runtime-dependencies",
+        nargs="*",
+        type=Path,
+        default=[],
         help="Paths to prepend to the runtime path of executable binaries."
-             " Subject to deduplication, which may imply some reordering.")
+             " Subject to deduplication, which may imply some reordering."
+    )
     parser.add_argument(
         "--append-rpaths",
         nargs="*",
         type=Path,
+        default=[],
         help="Paths to append to all runtime paths unconditionally",
     )
     parser.add_argument(
@@ -394,6 +413,12 @@ def main() -> None:
         action="store_true",
         help="Attempt to search for and relink libc dependencies.",
     )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--no-add-existing",
+        dest="add_existing",
+        action="store_false",
+        help="Do not add the existing rpaths of the patched files to the list of directories to search for dependencies.",
+    )
     parser.add_argument(
         "--extra-args",
         # Undocumented Python argparse feature: consume all remaining arguments
@@ -401,7 +426,8 @@ def main() -> None:
         # last.
         nargs="...",
         type=str,
-        help="Extra arguments to pass to patchelf. This argument should always come last."
+        default=[],
+        help="Extra arguments to pass to patchelf. This argument should always come last.",
     )
 
     print("automatically fixing dependencies for ELF files")
@@ -416,6 +442,7 @@ def main() -> None:
         args.ignore_missing,
         append_rpaths=args.append_rpaths,
         keep_libc=args.keep_libc,
+        add_existing=args.add_existing,
         extra_args=args.extra_args)