diff --git a/src/library/pkgdepends/DESCRIPTION b/src/library/pkgdepends/DESCRIPTION
index ab40ef87c..8accf5a01 100644
--- a/src/library/pkgdepends/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/src/library/pkgdepends/DESCRIPTION
@@ -22,10 +22,11 @@ Imports: callr (>= 3.3.1), cli (>= 3.6.0), curl, desc (>= 1.2.0),
         filelock (>= 1.0.2), jsonlite, lpSolve, pkgbuild (>= 1.0.2),
         pkgcache (>= 2.2.0), processx (>= 3.4.2), ps, R6, stats, utils,
         zip (>= 2.3.0)
-Suggests: asciicast (>= 2.2.0.9000), covr, debugme, fansi, fs, glue,
-        htmlwidgets, mockery, pak, pingr (>= 2.0.0), rmarkdown,
-        rstudioapi, spelling, svglite, testthat (>= 3.2.0), tibble,
-        webfakes (>= 1.1.5.9000), withr (>= 2.1.1)
+Remotes: r-lib/desc
+Suggests: asciicast (>= 2.2.0.9000), codetools, covr, debugme, fansi,
+        fs, glue, htmlwidgets, mockery, pak, pingr (>= 2.0.0),
+        rmarkdown, rstudioapi, spelling, svglite, testthat (>= 3.2.0),
+        tibble, webfakes (>= 1.1.5.9000), withr (>= 2.1.1)
 Config/Needs/coverage: r-lib/asciicast, covr
 Config/Needs/website: r-lib/asciicast, pkgdown (>= 2.0.2),
         tidyverse/tidytemplate
@@ -33,7 +34,7 @@ Config/testthat/edition: 3
 Encoding: UTF-8
 RoxygenNote: 7.2.3
 NeedsCompilation: no
-Packaged: 2023-11-21 21:52:53 UTC; gaborcsardi
+Packaged: 2023-12-10 20:41:52 UTC; gaborcsardi
 Author: Gábor Csárdi [aut, cre],
   Posit Software, PBC [cph, fnd]
 Maintainer: Gábor Csárdi <csardi.gabor@gmail.com>
diff --git a/src/library/pkgdepends/R/install-binary.R b/src/library/pkgdepends/R/install-binary.R
index de000f394..5ef23ba94 100644
--- a/src/library/pkgdepends/R/install-binary.R
+++ b/src/library/pkgdepends/R/install-binary.R
@@ -82,7 +82,10 @@ add_metadata <- function(pkg_path, metadata) {
   source_desc <- file.path(pkg_path, "DESCRIPTION")
   binary_desc <- file.path(pkg_path, "Meta", "package.rds")
   if (file.exists(source_desc)) {
-    do.call(desc::desc_set, c(as.list(metadata), list(file = source_desc)))
+    do.call(
+      desc::desc_set,
+      c(as.list(metadata), list(file = source_desc, check = FALSE))
+    )
   }
 
   if (file.exists(binary_desc)) {
diff --git a/src/library/pkgdepends/R/install-plan.R b/src/library/pkgdepends/R/install-plan.R
index 22c6e7f8c..137109dfc 100644
--- a/src/library/pkgdepends/R/install-plan.R
+++ b/src/library/pkgdepends/R/install-plan.R
@@ -386,6 +386,16 @@ make_build_process <- function(path, pkg, tmp_dir, lib, vignettes,
   ## with_libpath() is needed for newer callr, which forces the current
   ## lib path in the child process.
   mkdirp(tmplib <- tempfile("pkg-lib"))
+  # Otherwise it is loaded with a modified library path, so potentially from the
+  # wrong place, especially in pak
+  loadNamespace("pkgbuild")
+  loadNamespace("desc")
+  loadNamespace("callr")
+  loadNamespace("processx")
+  loadNamespace("cli")
+  loadNamespace("ps")
+  # loadNamespace("R6") # not needed, built time dependency
+
   withr_with_libpaths(c(tmplib, lib), action = "prefix",
     pkgbuild::pkgbuild_process$new(
       path, tmp_dir, binary = binary, vignettes = vignettes,
diff --git a/src/library/pkgdepends/R/solve.R b/src/library/pkgdepends/R/solve.R
index 6f9a56a44..d642b1426 100644
--- a/src/library/pkgdepends/R/solve.R
+++ b/src/library/pkgdepends/R/solve.R
@@ -1140,7 +1140,7 @@ pkgplan_export_install_plan <- function(self, private, plan_file, version) {
     for (i in seq_along(spkgs)) {
       elt <- spkgs[[i]]
       for (j in seq_along(elt)) {
-        elt[[j]]$sysreq <- jsonlite::unbox(elt[[j]]$sysreq)
+        elt[[j]]$sysreq <- tojson$unbox(elt[[j]]$sysreq)
         elt[[j]]$packages_missing <- NULL
       }
       if (!is.null(elt)) spkgs[[i]] <- elt
@@ -1150,14 +1150,14 @@ pkgplan_export_install_plan <- function(self, private, plan_file, version) {
 
   packages$params <- lapply(
     packages$params,
-    function(x) lapply(as.list(x), jsonlite::unbox)
+    function(x) lapply(as.list(x), tojson$unbox)
   )
 
   plan <- list(
-    lockfile_version = jsonlite::unbox(version),
-    os = jsonlite::unbox(utils::sessionInfo()$running),
-    r_version = jsonlite::unbox(R.Version()$version.string),
-    platform = jsonlite::unbox(R.Version()$platform),
+    lockfile_version = tojson$unbox(version),
+    os = tojson$unbox(utils::sessionInfo()$running),
+    r_version = tojson$unbox(R.Version()$version.string),
+    platform = tojson$unbox(R.Version()$platform),
     packages = packages
   )
 
@@ -1166,10 +1166,10 @@ pkgplan_export_install_plan <- function(self, private, plan_file, version) {
       self$get_solution()$data$sysreqs_packages,
       private$config$get("sysreqs_platform")
     )
-    sysreqs$os <- jsonlite::unbox(sysreqs$os)
-    sysreqs$distribution <- jsonlite::unbox(sysreqs$distribution)
-    sysreqs$version <- jsonlite::unbox(sysreqs$version)
-    sysreqs$url <- jsonlite::unbox(sysreqs$url)
+    sysreqs$os <- tojson$unbox(sysreqs$os)
+    sysreqs$distribution <- tojson$unbox(sysreqs$distribution)
+    sysreqs$version <- tojson$unbox(sysreqs$version)
+    sysreqs$url <- tojson$unbox(sysreqs$url)
     sysreqs$total <- NULL
     plan$sysreqs <- sysreqs
   }
@@ -1178,10 +1178,11 @@ pkgplan_export_install_plan <- function(self, private, plan_file, version) {
   writeLines(txt, plan_file)
 }
 
-as_json_lite_plan <- function(liteplan, pretty = as.logical(Sys.getenv("PKG_PRETTY_JSON", "TRUE")), ...) {
-  tolist1 <- function(x) lapply(x, function(v) lapply(as.list(v), jsonlite::unbox))
+as_json_lite_plan <- function(liteplan) {
+  tolist1 <- function(x) lapply(x, function(v) lapply(as.list(v), tojson$unbox))
   liteplan$packages$metadata <- tolist1(liteplan$packages$metadata)
-  jsonlite::toJSON(liteplan, pretty = pretty, ...)
+  json <- tojson$write_str(liteplan, opts = list(pretty = TRUE))
+  json
 }
 
 calculate_lib_status <- function(sol, res) {
diff --git a/src/library/pkgdepends/R/type-github.R b/src/library/pkgdepends/R/type-github.R
index 3432927f4..b011023bc 100644
--- a/src/library/pkgdepends/R/type-github.R
+++ b/src/library/pkgdepends/R/type-github.R
@@ -479,7 +479,10 @@ github_query <- function(query,
   query; url; headers; list(...)
 
   headers <- c(headers, type_github_get_headers())
-  data <- jsonlite::toJSON(list(query = query), auto_unbox = TRUE)
+  data <- tojson$write_str(
+    list(query = query),
+    opts = list(auto_unbox = TRUE)
+  )
   resp <- NULL
   obj <- NULL
 
diff --git a/src/library/pkgdepends/R/zzz-pkgdepends-config.R b/src/library/pkgdepends/R/zzz-pkgdepends-config.R
index cafeb2dff..022752628 100644
--- a/src/library/pkgdepends/R/zzz-pkgdepends-config.R
+++ b/src/library/pkgdepends/R/zzz-pkgdepends-config.R
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   cache_dir = list(
     type = "string",
-    default = detect_download_cache_dir,
+    default = function() detect_download_cache_dir(),
     docs =
       "Directory to download the packages to. Defaults to a temporary
        directory within the R session temporary directory, see
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   cran_mirror = list(
     type = "string",
-    default = default_cran_mirror,
+    default = function() default_cran_mirror(),
     docs =
       "CRAN mirror to use. Defaults to the `repos` option
        (see [base::options()]), if that's not set then
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   dependencies = list(
     type = "dependencies",
-    default = pkg_dep_types_hard,
+    default = function() pkg_dep_types_hard(),
     # pak functions take this as an argument, so we do not need it, for now
     pak = FALSE,
     docs =
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   metadata_update_after = list(
     type = "difftime",
-    default = default_update_after,
+    default = function() default_update_after(),
     docs =
       "A time interval as a [difftime] object. pkgdepends will update the
        metadata cache if it is older than this. The default is one day.
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   platforms = list(
     type = "character",
-    default = default_platforms,
+    default = function() default_platforms(),
     # TODO: do not link to pkgdepends docs from pak
     docs =
       "Character vector of platforms to _download_ or _install_ packages
@@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   r_versions = list(
     type = "character",
-    default = current_r_version,
+    default = function() current_r_version(),
     check = is_r_version_list,
     docs =
       "Character vector, R versions to download or install
@@ -214,7 +214,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   sysreqs = list(
     type = "flag",
-    default = default_sysreqs,
+    default = function(config) default_sysreqs(config),
     docs =
       "Whether to automatically look up and install system requirements.
        If `TRUE`, then `r pak_or_pkgdepends()` will try to install required
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   sysreqs_platform = list(
     type = "string",
-    default = default_sysreqs_platform,
+    default = function() default_sysreqs_platform(),
     docs =
       "The platform to use for system requirements lookup. On Linux, where
        system requirements are currently supported, it must be a string
@@ -271,7 +271,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   sysreqs_rspm_repo_id = list(
     type = "string",
-    default = default_sysreqs_rspm_repo_id,
+    default = function() default_sysreqs_rspm_repo_id(),
     docs =
       "Posit Package Manager (formerly RStudio Package Manager) repository
        id to use for CRAN system requirements lookup. Defaults to the
@@ -282,7 +282,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   sysreqs_rspm_url = list(
     type = "string",
-    default = default_sysreqs_rspm_url,
+    default = function() default_sysreqs_rspm_url(),
     docs = "Root URL of Posit Package Manager (formerly RStudio Package
        Manager) for system requirements lookup. By default the `RSPM_ROOT`
        environment variable is used, if set. If not set,
@@ -292,7 +292,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   sysreqs_sudo = list(
     type = "flag",
-    default = default_sysreqs_sudo,
+    default = function() default_sysreqs_sudo(),
     docs =
       "Whether to use `sudo` to install system requirements,
        on Unix. By default it is `TRUE` on Linux if the effective user id
@@ -302,7 +302,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   sysreqs_update = list(
     type = "flag",
-    default = default_sysreqs_update,
+    default = function() default_sysreqs_update(),
     docs =
       "Whether to try to update system packages that are already installed.
        It defaults to `TRUE` on CI systems: if the `CI` environment
@@ -312,7 +312,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   sysreqs_verbose = list(
     type = "flag",
-    default = default_sysreqs_verbose,
+    default = function() default_sysreqs_verbose(),
     docs =
       "Whether to echo the output of system requirements installation.
        Defaults to `TRUE` if the `CI` environment variable is set."
@@ -330,7 +330,7 @@ pkgdepends_config <- sort_by_name(list(
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   windows_archs = list(
     type = "string",
-    default = default_windows_archs,
+    default = function() default_windows_archs(),
     docs =
   # we can't indent this "correctly" because markdown will take it as code
   "Character scalar specifying which architectures