diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
index a03898ccb6..81f48f0709 100644
--- a/MAINTAINERS
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -4479,6 +4479,7 @@ R: Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <philmd@linaro.org>
 S: Maintained
 F: meson.build
 F: meson_options.txt
+F: run.in
 F: scripts/check_sparse.py
 F: scripts/symlink-install-tree.py
 
diff --git a/docs/devel/build-system.rst b/docs/devel/build-system.rst
index 6204aa6a72..b9797a374c 100644
--- a/docs/devel/build-system.rst
+++ b/docs/devel/build-system.rst
@@ -515,6 +515,18 @@ generates ``Makefile`` from ``Makefile.in``.
 
 Built by configure:
 
+``run``
+  Used to run commands / scripts from the git checkout. Sets ``$PATH``
+  to point to locally built binaries, and activates the python venv
+  before running the requested command. Pass the command to run as
+  args, for example::
+
+    $ ./build/run ./script/qmp/qmp-shell-wrap qemu-system-x86_64
+
+  will use the ``python3`` binary and site-packages from the local
+  venv to run ``qmp-shell-wrap`` and spawn the QEMU emulator from
+  the build directory.
+
 ``config-host.mak``
   When configure has determined the characteristics of the build host it
   will write the paths to various tools to this file, for use in ``Makefile``
diff --git a/docs/devel/testing/functional.rst b/docs/devel/testing/functional.rst
index fdeaebaadc..1978f96eba 100644
--- a/docs/devel/testing/functional.rst
+++ b/docs/devel/testing/functional.rst
@@ -53,15 +53,14 @@ the following line will only run the tests for the x86_64 target:
   make check-functional-x86_64
 
 To run a single test file without the meson test runner, you can also
-execute the file directly by specifying two environment variables first,
-the PYTHONPATH that has to include the python folder and the tests/functional
-folder of the source tree, and QEMU_TEST_QEMU_BINARY that has to point
-to the QEMU binary that should be used for the test. The current working
-directory should be your build folder. For example::
+execute the file directly by specifying the name of the emulator target
+binary as an env variable.
 
-  $ export PYTHONPATH=../python:../tests/functional
-  $ export QEMU_TEST_QEMU_BINARY=$PWD/qemu-system-x86_64
-  $ pyvenv/bin/python3 ../tests/functional/test_file.py
+Assuming the current working directory is the top level source checkout
+and the build directory is './build'::
+
+  $ export QEMU_TEST_QEMU_BINARY=qemu-system-x86_64
+  $ ./build/run tests/functional/x86_64/test_virtio_version.py
 
 The test framework will automatically purge any scratch files created during
 the tests. If needing to debug a failed test, it is possible to keep these
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 3790cf15f5..14b1160c15 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@ project('qemu', ['c'], meson_version: '>=1.5.0',
                           'rust_std=2021', 'build.rust_std=2021'],
         version: files('VERSION'))
 
-meson.add_devenv({ 'MESON_BUILD_ROOT' : meson.project_build_root() })
-
 add_test_setup('quick', exclude_suites: ['slow', 'thorough'], is_default: true,
                env: ['RUST_BACKTRACE=1'])
 add_test_setup('slow', exclude_suites: ['thorough'],
@@ -3501,6 +3499,20 @@ endif
 config_host_h = configure_file(output: 'config-host.h', configuration: config_host_data)
 genh += config_host_h
 
+devenv = environment()
+devenv.set('MESON_BUILD_ROOT', meson.project_build_root())
+devenv.set('VIRTUAL_ENV', meson.project_build_root() / 'pyvenv')
+devenv.prepend('PATH', meson.project_build_root() / 'pyvenv'/ 'bin')
+devenv.prepend('PYTHONPATH', meson.current_source_dir() / 'tests' / 'functional')
+devenv.prepend('PYTHONPATH', meson.current_source_dir() / 'python')
+meson.add_devenv(devenv)
+
+run_config = configuration_data({'build_dir': meson.current_build_dir()})
+run = configure_file(input: 'run.in',
+                     output: 'run',
+                     configuration: run_config)
+run_command('chmod', 'a+x', meson.current_build_dir() / 'run', check: true)
+
 hxtool = find_program('scripts/hxtool')
 shaderinclude = find_program('scripts/shaderinclude.py')
 qapi_gen = find_program('scripts/qapi-gen.py')
diff --git a/run.in b/run.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1bb12272a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/run.in
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
+
+exec @build_dir@/pyvenv/bin/meson devenv -C @build_dir@ -w "$PWD" "$@"