diff --git a/cddl/Setup.hs b/cddl/Setup.hs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0f0c409fcab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cddl/Setup.hs
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+import Prelude
+
+import Data.Maybe
+  ( fromJust
+  )
+import Distribution.Simple
+  ( Args
+  , UserHooks (..)
+  , defaultMainWithHooks
+  , simpleUserHooks
+  )
+import Distribution.Simple.LocalBuildInfo
+  ( LocalBuildInfo (..),
+  )
+import Distribution.Simple.Setup
+  ( BuildFlags (..)
+  , ConfigFlags (..)
+  , fromFlag
+  )
+import Distribution.Simple.UserHooks
+  ( UserHooks (..)
+  )
+import Distribution.Simple.Utils
+  ( rawSystemExit
+  )
+import System.Directory
+  ( getCurrentDirectory
+  )
+
+import qualified Distribution.PackageDescription as Pkg
+
+main :: IO ()
+main =
+  defaultMainWithHooks
+    simpleUserHooks
+      { confHook = rustConfHook
+      , buildHook = rustBuildHook
+      }
+
+rustConfHook
+  :: (Pkg.GenericPackageDescription, Pkg.HookedBuildInfo)
+  -> ConfigFlags
+  -> IO LocalBuildInfo
+rustConfHook (description, buildInfo) flags = do
+  localBuildInfo <- confHook simpleUserHooks (description, buildInfo) flags
+  let packageDescription = localPkgDescr localBuildInfo
+  let library = fromJust $ Pkg.library packageDescription
+  let libraryBuildInfo = Pkg.libBuildInfo library
+  dir <- getCurrentDirectory
+  return localBuildInfo
+    { localPkgDescr = packageDescription
+      { Pkg.library = Just library
+        { Pkg.libBuildInfo = libraryBuildInfo
+          { Pkg.extraLibDirs = (dir ++ "/target/release") : Pkg.extraLibDirs libraryBuildInfo
+          }
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
+rustBuildHook
+  :: Pkg.PackageDescription
+  -> LocalBuildInfo
+  -> UserHooks
+  -> BuildFlags
+  -> IO ()
+rustBuildHook description localBuildInfo hooks flags = do
+  putStrLn "[🦀] Compiling Rust dependencies..."
+  putStrLn "[🦀] cargo build --release"
+  rawSystemExit (fromFlag $ buildVerbosity flags) "cargo" ["build", "--release"]
+  buildHook simpleUserHooks description localBuildInfo hooks flags
diff --git a/cddl/cbits/libcddl.a b/cddl/cbits/libcddl.a
deleted file mode 100644
index 9ec3f4d2f81..00000000000
Binary files a/cddl/cbits/libcddl.a and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/cddl/cddl.cabal b/cddl/cddl.cabal
index 03018e43bea..0e3a05ee3b1 100644
--- a/cddl/cddl.cabal
+++ b/cddl/cddl.cabal
@@ -10,8 +10,14 @@ author:                 KtorZ <matthias.benkort@cardanofoundation.org>
 maintainer:             matthias.benkort@cardanofoundation.org
 license:                Apache-2.0
 license-files:          LICENSE
-build-type:             Simple
-extra-source-files:     cbits/libcddl.h
+build-type:             Custom
+extra-source-files:     Setup.hs
+                        cbits/libcddl.h
+
+custom-setup
+  setup-depends:        , base
+                        , directory
+                        , Cabal
 
 common project-config
   default-language:     Haskell2010
@@ -46,7 +52,6 @@ test-suite unit
                         Paths_cddl
   build-depends:        , base
                         , base16-bytestring
-                        , bytestring
                         , cddl
                         , hspec
                         , text