diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/package_base.py b/lib/spack/spack/package_base.py
index 2e12eebc582..6d17f0d3c0f 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/package_base.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/package_base.py
@@ -697,7 +697,7 @@ def __init__(self, spec):
         # packages.yaml config can override package attributes. This is set
         # on the instance rather than the class since the configuration can
         # change between calls to repo.get for the same package.
-        settings = spack.config.get("packages").get(spec.name, {}).get("set", {})
+        settings = spack.config.get("packages").get(spec.name, {}).get("package_attributes", {})
         for key, val in settings.items():
             setattr(self, key, val)
 
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/schema/packages.py b/lib/spack/spack/schema/packages.py
index 93faee5342c..d696aad29ea 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/schema/packages.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/schema/packages.py
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@
                     },
                     # If 'get_full_repo' is promoted to a Package-level
                     # attribute, it could be useful to set it here
-                    "set": {
+                    "package_attributes": {
                         "type": "object",
                         "additionalProperties": False,
                         "properties": {
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/test/concretize_preferences.py b/lib/spack/spack/test/concretize_preferences.py
index 5852c7e6003..813d250646f 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/test/concretize_preferences.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/test/concretize_preferences.py
@@ -184,12 +184,12 @@ def test_config_set_url_for_package(self, mutable_mock_repo):
         applied correctly
         """
         update_packages(
-            "mpileaks", "set", {"url": "http://www.somewhereelse.com/mpileaks-1.0.tar.gz"}
+            "mpileaks", "package_attributes", {"url": "http://www.somewhereelse.com/mpileaks-1.0.tar.gz"}
         )
         spec = concretize("mpileaks")
         assert spec.package.fetcher[0].url == "http://www.somewhereelse.com/mpileaks-2.3.tar.gz"
 
-        update_packages("mpileaks", "set", {})
+        update_packages("mpileaks", "package_attributes", {})
         spec = concretize("mpileaks")
         assert spec.package.fetcher[0].url == "http://www.llnl.gov/mpileaks-2.3.tar.gz"