diff --git a/.github/workflows/e2e.yml b/.github/workflows/e2e.yml
index be5005c..97774ef 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/e2e.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/e2e.yml
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ jobs:
         if: contains(matrix.os, 'macos-12') == false
       - name: Install sponge and timeout 
         run: brew install coreutils sponge
+      - name: Install cargo-dist
+        run: cargo install cargo-dist
       - name: Install IC SDK (dfx)
         run: sh -ci "$(curl -sSL https://internetcomputer.org/install.sh)"
       - name: run test
diff --git a/e2e/utils.sh b/e2e/utils.sh
index ab994c9..8a0d4f3 100644
--- a/e2e/utils.sh
+++ b/e2e/utils.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 set -e
 
-GIT_ROOT_DIR=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
-
+export CARGO_HOME="$HOME"
 load "$GIT_ROOT_DIR"/e2e/bats-support/load
 load "$GIT_ROOT_DIR"/e2e/bats-assert/load
 
@@ -22,6 +21,19 @@ install_shared_asset() {
     cp -R "$ASSET_ROOT"/* "$(dirname "$E2E_NETWORKS_JSON")"
 }
 
+dfx_extension_install_manually() (
+    cd "$GIT_ROOT_DIR"
+    local extension_name="$1"
+    package_version=$(HOME="$CARGO_HOME" cargo metadata --format-version=1 | jq -r '.workspace_members[]' | grep "$extension_name" | cut -d" " -f2)
+    HOME="$CARGO_HOME" cargo dist build --tag="$extension_name-v$package_version" # cargo-dist needs git tag only metadata-related stuff; it won't do git checkout, it will build from HEAD
+    extensions_dir="$(dfx cache show)/extensions"
+    arch_platform="$(get_arch_and_platform)"
+    rm -rf "$extensions_dir/$extension_name-$arch_platform" "${extensions_dir:?}/$extension_name" # remove old versions
+    mkdir -p "$extensions_dir"
+    tar xfJ "target/distrib/$extension_name-$arch_platform.tar.xz" -C "$extensions_dir"
+    mv "$extensions_dir/$extension_name-$arch_platform" "$extensions_dir/$extension_name"
+)
+
 standard_setup() {
     # We want to work from a temporary directory, different for every test.
     x=$(mktemp -d -t dfx-e2e-XXXXXXXX)
@@ -446,3 +458,21 @@ assert_no_dfx_start_or_replica_processes() {
     fi
 }
 
+get_arch_and_platform() {
+    ARCH=$(uname -m)
+    SYS=$(uname -s)
+
+    if [[ "$ARCH" == "x86_64" ]]; then
+        if [[ "$SYS" == "Darwin" ]]; then
+            echo "$ARCH-apple-darwin"
+        elif [[ "$SYS" == "Linux" ]]; then
+            echo "$ARCH-unknown-linux-gnu"
+        else
+            echo "System not recognized"
+        fi
+    elif [[ "$ARCH" == "arm64" && "$SYS" == "Darwin" ]]; then
+        echo "aarch64-apple-darwin"
+    else
+        echo "Architecture not recognized"
+    fi
+}
diff --git a/extensions/nns/e2e/tests/nns.bash b/extensions/nns/e2e/tests/nns.bash
index 6515d5d..428b4ce 100755
--- a/extensions/nns/e2e/tests/nns.bash
+++ b/extensions/nns/e2e/tests/nns.bash
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bats
 
-GIT_ROOT_DIR=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
-
+export GIT_ROOT_DIR="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
 load "$GIT_ROOT_DIR"/e2e/utils.sh
 
 assets="$(dirname "$BATS_TEST_FILENAME")"/../assets
@@ -9,7 +8,7 @@ assets="$(dirname "$BATS_TEST_FILENAME")"/../assets
 setup() {
     standard_setup
 
-    dfx extension install nns
+    dfx_extension_install_manually nns
 
     dfx_new
 }
diff --git a/extensions/sns/e2e/tests/sns.bash b/extensions/sns/e2e/tests/sns.bash
index f004a1c..fe10352 100755
--- a/extensions/sns/e2e/tests/sns.bash
+++ b/extensions/sns/e2e/tests/sns.bash
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bats
 
-GIT_ROOT_DIR=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
+export GIT_ROOT_DIR="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
 
 load "$GIT_ROOT_DIR"/e2e/utils.sh
 
 setup() {
     standard_setup
 
-    dfx extension install sns
+    dfx_extension_install_manually sns
 }
 
 teardown() {
@@ -60,8 +60,8 @@ SNS_CONFIG_FILE_NAME="sns.yml"
 }
 
 @test "sns deploy fails without config file" {
+    dfx_extension_install_manually nns
     dfx_new
-    dfx extension install nns
     dfx nns import
     rm -f sns.yml # Is not expected to be present anyway
     run dfx sns deploy
@@ -70,11 +70,11 @@ SNS_CONFIG_FILE_NAME="sns.yml"
 }
 
 @test "sns deploy succeeds" {
+    dfx_extension_install_manually nns
     dfx_new
     install_shared_asset subnet_type/shared_network_settings/system
     dfx start --clean --background --host 127.0.0.1:8080
     sleep 1
-    dfx extension install nns
     dfx nns install
     dfx nns import
     dfx sns import