diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci-workflow.yml b/.github/workflows/ci-workflow.yml
index 54a12a6..5aeb9be 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci-workflow.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci-workflow.yml
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ on:
       commontoolingBranch:
         description: 'Commontooling branch or tag to use'
         required: true
-        default: 'main'
+        default: 'philipn-python-install-setuptools'
         type: string
 
 jobs:
@@ -48,5 +48,5 @@ jobs:
       # workflow_dispatch inputs are always strings. Convert to boolean.
       forceDocsUpload: ${{ inputs.forceDocsUpload == true }}
       pythonVersion: ${{ inputs.pythonVersion || '3.10' }}
-      commontoolingBranch: ${{ inputs.commontoolingBranch || 'main' }}
+      commontoolingBranch: ${{ inputs.commontoolingBranch || 'philipn-python-install-setuptools' }}
     secrets: inherit
diff --git a/static-commontooling/docker/Dockerfile_multi_macros.j2 b/static-commontooling/docker/Dockerfile_multi_macros.j2
index 9fd3eb7..754f2ab 100644
--- a/static-commontooling/docker/Dockerfile_multi_macros.j2
+++ b/static-commontooling/docker/Dockerfile_multi_macros.j2
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ COPY --from=api /api ./{{ modname }}/apidocs
 {% endif -%}
 COPY . .
 
+RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/pip --mount=type=secret,id=pipconf,target=/etc/pip.conf pip install setuptools
+
 RUN python3 setup.py sdist
 {%- endmacro %}
 
@@ -66,6 +68,9 @@ COPY {{ extra_requirements_file }} ./
 RUN cat {{ extra_requirements_file }} >> ./requirements.txt
 {%-  endif %}
 
+# Ensure setuptools is installed
+RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/pip --mount=type=secret,id=pipconf,target=/etc/pip.conf pip install setuptools
+
 {% if install_target != None -%}
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.cache/pip --mount=type=secret,id=pipconf,target=/etc/pip.conf mkdir -p {{ install_target }} && pip install -f ./wheels -r requirements.txt -t {{ install_target }}