diff --git a/tools/setup/setup_r_dependencies.R b/tools/setup/setup_r_dependencies.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..475684a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/setup/setup_r_dependencies.R
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+################################################################################
+## This script is a modified version of the setup-r-dependencies Github action
+## for local use and debugging. The source for the action is:
+## https://github.com/r-lib/actions/blob/v2-branch/setup-r-dependencies/action.yaml
+################################################################################
+
+# Set site library path
+cat("::group::Set site library path\n")
+if (Sys.getenv("RENV_PROJECT") != "") {
+    message("renv project detected, no need to set R_LIBS_SITE")
+    cat(sprintf("R_LIB_FOR_PAK=%s\n", .libPaths()[1]), file = Sys.getenv("GITHUB_ENV"), append = TRUE)
+    q("no")
+}
+lib <- .libPaths()[[1]]
+if (lib == "") {
+    lib <- file.path(dirname(.Library), "site-library")
+    Sys.setenv(R_LIBS_SITE = strsplit(lib, .Platform$path.sep)[[1]][[1]])
+    Sys.setenv(R_LIB_FOR_PAK = strsplit(lib, .Platform$path.sep)[[1]][[1]])
+    message("Setting R_LIBS_SITE to ", lib)
+    message("Setting R_LIB_FOR_PAK to ", lib)
+} else {
+    message("R_LIBS_SITE is already set to ", lib)
+    Sys.setenv(R_LIB_FOR_PAK = strsplit(lib, .Platform$path.sep)[[1]][[1]])
+    message("R_LIB_FOR_PAK is now set to ", lib)
+}
+cat("::endgroup::\n")
+
+# Install pak
+cat("::group::Install pak\n")
+lib <- Sys.getenv("R_LIB_FOR_PAK")
+dir.create(lib, showWarnings = FALSE, recursive = TRUE)
+install.packages("pak", lib = lib, repos = sprintf(
+    "https://r-lib.github.io/p/pak/%s/%s/%s/%s",
+    "stable",
+    .Platform$pkgType,
+    R.Version()$os,
+    R.Version()$arch
+))
+cat("::endgroup::\n")
+
+# Dependency resolution
+cat("::group::Dependency resolution\n")
+cat("os-version=", sessionInfo()$running, "\n", sep = "", append = TRUE)
+r_version <-
+    if (grepl("development", R.version.string)) {
+        pdf(tempfile())
+        ge_ver <- attr(recordPlot(), "engineVersion")
+        dev.off()
+        paste0("R version ", getRversion(), " (ge:", ge_ver, "; iid:", .Internal(internalsID()), ")")
+    } else {
+        R.version.string
+    }
+cat("r-version=", r_version, "\n", sep = "", append = TRUE)
+needs <- sprintf("Config/Needs/%s", strsplit("", "[[:space:],]+")[[1]])
+deps <- strsplit("deps::., any::sessioninfo", "[[:space:],]+")[[1]]
+# extra_deps <- strsplit("any::testthat, any::decor, local::.", "[[:space:],]+")[[1]]
+extra_deps <- strsplit("any::testthat, any::decor, github::StochasticTree/stochtree-r", "[[:space:],]+")[[1]]
+dir.create("install_temp", showWarnings=FALSE)
+Sys.setenv("PKGCACHE_HTTP_VERSION" = "2")
+library(pak, lib.loc = Sys.getenv("R_LIB_FOR_PAK"))
+pak::lockfile_create(
+    c(deps, extra_deps),
+    lockfile = "install_temp/pkg.lock",
+    upgrade = FALSE,
+    dependencies = c(needs, "all"),
+    lib = NULL
+)
+cat("::endgroup::\n")
+cat("::group::Show Lockfile\n")
+writeLines(readLines("install_temp/pkg.lock"))
+cat("::endgroup::\n")
+
+# Install/Update packages
+cat("::group::Install/update packages\n")
+Sys.setenv("PKGCACHE_HTTP_VERSION" = "2")
+library(pak, lib.loc = Sys.getenv("R_LIB_FOR_PAK"))
+pak::lockfile_install("install_temp/pkg.lock")
+
+# Clean up temporary pkg.lock install directory
+unlink("install_temp", recursive = TRUE)
+cat("::endgroup::\n")