diff --git a/docs/development.md b/docs/development.md
index cfa2be6c1..1c24037c8 100644
--- a/docs/development.md
+++ b/docs/development.md
@@ -35,8 +35,9 @@ On all platforms, you will need to install:
   will be automatically downloaded if not yet installed. If removing that file
   to use a distro-provided Rust, newer Rust versions will typically work for
   building but may fail tests; older Rust versions may not work at all.
-- Ninja (unzip from https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja/releases/tag/v1.11.1 and
-  place on your path, or from your distro/homebrew if it's 1.10+)
+- N2 or Ninja. On Linux/Mac, N2 gives better status output (run tools/install-n2). Ninja
+  can be downloaded from https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja/releases/tag/v1.11.1 and
+  placed on your path, or from your distro/homebrew if it's 1.10+.
 
 Platform-specific requirements:
 
diff --git a/tools/install-n2 b/tools/install-n2
index 7e47555ef..c5ccf44b2 100755
--- a/tools/install-n2
+++ b/tools/install-n2
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-cargo install --git https://github.com/evmar/n2.git --rev e73378d693716715be1a420aa74a2836b49b85c8
+cargo install --git https://github.com/evmar/n2.git --rev 9ae7d98ae708454b48cc2e1fe54f2969b20b0ba4