diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index e45d912a..98ffbb41 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -205,10 +205,11 @@ jobs:
       with:
         python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
     - name: Install Python dependencies
-      # since the sdks dependencies are currently a superset of compliance-tools this is sufficient.
+      # install the local sdk in editable mode so it does not get overwritten
       run: |
         python -m pip install --upgrade pip
-        pip install ../sdk[dev]
+        pip install -e ../sdk[dev]
+        pip install .[dev]
     - name: Test with coverage + unittest
       run: |
         coverage run --source=aas_compliance_tool -m unittest
@@ -231,10 +232,11 @@ jobs:
       with:
         python-version: ${{ env.X_PYTHON_VERSION }}
     - name: Install Python dependencies
-      # since the sdks dependencies are currently a superset of compliance-tools this is sufficient.
+      # install the local sdk in editable mode so it does not get overwritten
       run: |
         python -m pip install --upgrade pip
-        pip install ../sdk[dev]
+        pip install -e ../sdk[dev]
+        pip install .[dev]
     - name: Check typing with MyPy
       run: |
         mypy ./aas_compliance_tool test
@@ -256,10 +258,11 @@ jobs:
       with:
         python-version: ${{ env.X_PYTHON_VERSION }}
     - name: Install Python dependencies
-      # since the sdks dependencies are currently a superset of compliance-tools this is sufficient.
+      # install the local sdk in editable mode so it does not get overwritten
       run: |
         python -m pip install --upgrade pip
-        pip install ../sdk[dev]
+        pip install -e ../sdk[dev]
+        pip install .[dev]
     - name: Check typing with MyPy
       run: |
         mypy <(codeblocks python README.md)
diff --git a/compliance_tool/pyproject.toml b/compliance_tool/pyproject.toml
index c907f90d..31cea53d 100644
--- a/compliance_tool/pyproject.toml
+++ b/compliance_tool/pyproject.toml
@@ -48,6 +48,9 @@ dev = [
     "codeblocks",
     "coverage",
 ]
+# if you want local changes to the sdk to affect the compliance-tool first install
+# only this with pip install .[local-sdk] --no-deps then install the other requirements
+local-sdk = ["-e ../sdk"]
 
 [project.urls]
 "Homepage" = "https://github.com/eclipse-basyx/basyx-python-sdk"