diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index f22b2fb7..047e0fb7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -10,7 +10,10 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2
-      - uses: actions/setup-node@v1
+      - uses: actions/setup-go@v2
+        with:
+          go-version: '1.16'
+      - uses: actions/setup-node@v2
         with:
           node-version: 16
       - uses: actions/cache@v2
@@ -32,6 +35,9 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - uses: actions/setup-go@v2
+        with:
+          go-version: '1.16'
       - uses: actions/setup-node@v2
         with:
           node-version: 16
@@ -59,7 +65,10 @@ jobs:
     name: test node ${{ matrix.node }}
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2
-      - uses: actions/setup-node@v1
+      - uses: actions/setup-go@v2
+        with:
+          go-version: '1.16'
+      - uses: actions/setup-node@v2
         with:
           node-version: 16
       - uses: actions/cache@v2
@@ -92,7 +101,10 @@ jobs:
           - webworker
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2
-      - uses: actions/setup-node@v1
+      - uses: actions/setup-go@v2
+        with:
+          go-version: '1.16'
+      - uses: actions/setup-node@v2
         with:
           node-version: 16
       - uses: actions/cache@v2
@@ -122,7 +134,10 @@ jobs:
           - electron-renderer
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2
-      - uses: actions/setup-node@v1
+      - uses: actions/setup-go@v2
+        with:
+          go-version: '1.16'
+      - uses: actions/setup-node@v2
         with:
           node-version: 16
       - uses: actions/cache@v2
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 729bf0ce..36922669 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -37,4 +37,5 @@ dist
 test/test-data/go-ipfs-repo/LOCK
 test/test-data/go-ipfs-repo/LOG
 test/test-data/go-ipfs-repo/LOG.old
-types
\ No newline at end of file
+types
+tmp
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 0e69128d..21b9834c 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
     "npm": ">6.0.0"
   },
   "scripts": {
+    "preinstall": "bash ./setup-http-rpc-runtime.sh",
     "lint": "aegir lint",
     "build": "aegir build",
     "pretest": "aegir build --esm-tests",
diff --git a/setup-http-rpc-runtime.sh b/setup-http-rpc-runtime.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..a4b9051c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup-http-rpc-runtime.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -xeo pipefail
+
+# this script  sets up the Rube Goldberg machine for testing HTTP RPC wire format change end-to-end
+# context:
+# - https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/pull/8183
+# - https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/pull/3922
+
+# use updated GO implementation from https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/pull/8183
+cd tmp
+    git clone -b feat/pubsub-require-multibase https://github.com/coryschwartz/go-ipfs.git
+    cd go-ipfs
+        make build
+        make install
+        cd ../..
+# TODO: go-ipfs binary path to be used as IPFS_GO_EXEC
+realpath tmp/go-ipfs/cmd/ipfs/ipfs
+
+
+# use updated JS implementation from https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/pull/3922
+rm -rf node_modules tmp
+mkdir tmp
+cd tmp
+    git clone -b feat/pubsub-require-multibase https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs.git
+    cd js-ipfs
+        npm install
+        npm run build
+        npm run link
+        cd ../..
+
+# make sure npm uses js-ipfs libs
+npx connect-deps link \
+    ./tmp/js-ipfs/packages/ipfs \
+    ./tmp/js-ipfs/packages/ipfs-http-client \
+    --connect