diff --git a/.Rbuildignore b/.Rbuildignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..91114bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.Rbuildignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+^.*\.Rproj$
+^\.Rproj\.user$
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5b6a065
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+.Rproj.user
+.Rhistory
+.RData
+.Ruserdata
diff --git a/05-get-updated-cran-pkgs.R b/05-get-updated-cran-pkgs.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9b3ee5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+Package: rBinaries
+Title: What the Package Does (One Line, Title Case)
+Version: 0.0.0.9000
+Authors@R:
+    person("First", "Last", , "first.last@example.com", role = c("aut", "cre"),
+           comment = c(ORCID = "YOUR-ORCID-ID"))
+Description: What the package does (one paragraph).
+License: `use_mit_license()`, `use_gpl3_license()` or friends to pick a
+    license
+Encoding: UTF-8
+Roxygen: list(markdown = TRUE)
+RoxygenNote: 7.3.1
+Imports:
+    cli,
+    gert,
+    lubridate,
+    magrittr,
+    pak,
+    paws.storage,
+    pkgbuild,
+    purrr,
+    xml2
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c2f3679
--- /dev/null
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+
+importFrom(gert,git_config_set)
+importFrom(lubridate,as_date)
+importFrom(lubridate,dmy_hms)
+importFrom(magrittr,"%>%")
+importFrom(pak,local_install_dev_deps)
+importFrom(paws.storage,s3)
+importFrom(pkgbuild,build)
+importFrom(purrr,list_rbind)
+importFrom(purrr,map)
+importFrom(xml2,read_xml)
+importFrom(xml2,xml_find_all)
+importFrom(xml2,xml_find_first)
+importFrom(xml2,xml_text)
diff --git a/R/build_binaries.R b/R/build_binaries.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3fe9f33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/build_binaries.R
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+#' @importFrom gert git_config_set
+#' @importFrom pak local_install_dev_deps
+#' @importFrom pkgbuild build
+build_binary_package <- function(package_name, tag = NULL, codename = NULL,
+                                 r_version_minor = NULL, build_for_minor = TRUE,
+                                 local_build_root = "/root",
+                                 local_clone_dir = "/tmp",
+                                 pak_pkg_syrsreqs_platform = "redhat-9",
+                                 install_system_dependencies = TRUE) {
+  codename <- set_codename(codename)
+
+  if (is.null(r_version_minor)) {
+    r_version_minor <- sub("R version (\\d+\\.\\d+).*", "\\1", R.Version()$version.string)
+  }
+
+  # create directory structure
+  dir_out_bin <- set_bin_path(r_version_minor, build_for_minor, local_build_root, codename)
+  dir_out_src <- sprintf("%s/src/contrib/Archive", local_build_root)
+  cli::cli_alert_info("{.fun build_binary_package}: Creating dir {.path {dir_out_bin}}.")
+  cli::cli_alert_info("{.fun build_binary_package}: Creating dir {.path {dir_out_src}}.")
+  dir.create(sprintf("%s/Archive", dir_out_bin), sprintf("%s/Archive", dir_out_src),
+    recursive = TRUE
+  )
+
+  local_clone_dir_single <- sprintf("%s/%s_%s", local_clone_dir, package_name, tag)
+
+  ### Install system dependencies
+  if (install_system_dependencies) {
+    install_package_system_dependencies(package_name, pak_pkg_syrsreqs_platform, tag, local_clone_dir_single)
+  }
+
+  gert::git_config_global_set("advice.detachedHead", "false")
+
+  # if tag = NULL, build all tags
+  if (is.null(tag)) {
+    # when building all tags, we do a full clone to checkout all subsequent tags
+    # Using system git here as {gert} does not provide this functionality
+    # FIXME:
+    # system2("git", args = c("config", "advice.detachedHead", "false"))
+    # system2("git", args = c(
+    #   "clone", sprintf("https://github.com/cran/%s", package_name), sprintf("%s/%s", local_clone_dir, package_name)
+    # ))
+  } else {
+    cli::cli_alert_info("{.fun build_binary_package}: 1. Cloning package {.env {package_name}} with tag {.env {tag}}.")
+
+    # Using system git here as {gert} does not provide this functionality
+    system2("git", args = c(
+      "clone", "-q", sprintf("--branch=%s", tag),
+      sprintf("https://github.com/cran/%s", package_name), local_clone_dir_single
+    ))
+
+    cli::cli_alert_info("{.fun build_binary_package}: 2. Building package {.env {package_name}} with tag {.env {tag}}.")
+
+    pkgbuild::build(
+      path = sprintf("%s", local_clone_dir_single),
+      binary = TRUE, vignettes = FALSE,
+      dest_path = dir_out_bin
+    )
+
+    if (!file.exists(sprintf("%s/%s_%s.tar.gz", dir_out_bin, package_name, tag))) {
+      cli::cli_alert_info('{.fun build_binary_package}: 3. Moving package from {.path {sprintf("%s/%s*.tar.gz", dir_out_bin, package_name)}} to {.path {sprintf("%s/%s_%s.tar.gz", dir_out_bin, package_name, tag)}}')
+      # remove _aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu part in filename
+      system2("rsync", args = c(
+        sprintf("%s/%s_%s*.tar.gz", dir_out_bin, package_name, tag),
+        sprintf("%s/%s_%s.tar.gz", dir_out_bin, package_name, tag)
+      ))
+    } else {
+      cli::cli_alert_warning('{.fun build_binary_package}: Binary {sprintf("%s_%s.tar.gz", package_name, tag)} already exists. Skipping copy.')
+    }
+    unlink(sprintf("%s/%s_%s_R*.tar.gz", dir_out_bin, package_name, tag))
+
+    cli::cli_alert_info("{.fun build_binary_package}: 4. Removing {.path {local_clone_dir_single}}.")
+    unlink(local_clone_dir_single, force = TRUE, recursive = TRUE)
+  }
+}
+
+
+install_package_system_dependencies <- function(package_name,
+                                                pak_pkg_syrsreqs_platform = "redhat-9",
+                                                tag,
+                                                local_clone_dir_single) {
+  cli::cli_alert_info("{.fun install_package_system_dependencies}: Cloning package {.env {package_name}} with tag {.env {tag}}.")
+
+  if (!dir.exists(local_clone_dir_single)) {
+    system2("git", args = c(
+      "clone", "-q", sprintf("--branch=%s", tag),
+      sprintf("https://github.com/cran/%s", package_name), local_clone_dir_single
+    ))
+  }
+
+  Sys.setenv(PKG_SYSREQS_PLATFORM = pak_pkg_syrsreqs_platform)
+  Sys.setenv(PKG_SYSREQS = TRUE)
+  Sys.setenv(PKG_SYSREQS_VERBOSE = TRUE)
+  pak::local_install_dev_deps(sprintf("%s", local_clone_dir_single))
+
+  cli::cli_alert_info("{.fun install_package_system_dependencies}: 4. Removing {.path {local_clone_dir_single}}.")
+  # delete clone again as we need a full clone of the repo when not only building a single tag
+  if (!is.null(tag)) {
+    unlink(sprintf("%s", local_clone_dir_single), recursive = TRUE, force = TRUE)
+  }
+}
diff --git a/R/get_updated_packages.R b/R/get_updated_packages.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2973ba4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/get_updated_packages.R
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#' @importFrom magrittr %>%
+#' @importFrom purrr map list_rbind
+get_updated_cran_packages <- function(date = lubridate::today()) {
+  feed <- get_cranberry_feed()
+
+  # Apply the function to each item and bind the results into a data frame
+  results <- map(feed, ~ process_cranberry_rss(.x, date)) %>%
+    list_rbind()
+
+  return(results)
+}
+
+#' @importFrom xml2 read_xml xml_find_all
+get_cranberry_feed <- function(feed = "https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/cranberries/cran/updated/index.rss") {
+  # Fetch and parse the RSS feed
+  rss_content <- read_xml(feed)
+
+  # Extract item nodes
+  items <- xml_find_all(rss_content, "//item")
+
+  return(items)
+}
+
+#' @importFrom lubridate dmy_hms as_date
+#' @importFrom xml2 xml_text xml_find_first
+process_cranberry_rss <- function(feed, date = lubridate::today()) {
+  title <- xml_text(xml_find_first(feed, "title"))
+  pub_date_text <- xml_text(xml_find_first(feed, "pubDate"))
+  pub_date <- dmy_hms(pub_date_text)
+  pub_date <- as_date(pub_date)
+
+  if (!is.na(pub_date) && pub_date == date) {
+    package_info <- strsplit(title, " ")[[1]]
+    package_name <- package_info[2]
+    package_version_new <- package_info[7]
+    package_version_old <- package_info[12]
+    previous_update_date <- package_info[14]
+
+    return(data.frame(
+      "name" = package_name,
+      "version_new" = package_version_new,
+      "date_updated" = pub_date,
+      "version_old" = package_version_old,
+      "previous_update_date" = previous_update_date
+
+    ))
+  } else {
+    return(NULL)
+  }
+}
diff --git a/R/helpers.R b/R/helpers.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0b2e257
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/helpers.R
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+set_codename <- function(codename) {
+  if (is.null(codename)) {
+    if (Sys.info()["sysname"] == "Linux") {
+      dist_fam <- system2("grep",
+        args = c("'^ID_LIKE=' /etc/os-release | cut -d'=' -f2 | tr -d '\"'"), stdout = TRUE
+      )
+      if (dist_fam == "debian") {
+        codename <- system2("grep",
+          args = c("'^VERSION_CODENAME=' /etc/os-release | cut -d'=' -f2 | tr -d '\"'"), stdout = TRUE
+        )
+      } else if (grepl("rhel", dist_fam)) {
+        platform_id <- system2("grep",
+          args = c("'^PLATFORM_ID=' /etc/os-release | cut -d'=' -f2 | tr -d '\"'"), stdout = TRUE
+        )
+        if (platform_id == "platform:el9") {
+          codename <- "rhel9"
+        } else if (platform_id == "platform:el8") {
+          codename <- "rhel8"
+        }
+      }
+    } else {
+      codename <- "unknown"
+    }
+  }
+  return(codename)
+}
+
+set_bin_path <- function(r_version_minor, build_for_minor, local_build_root, codename) {
+  if (is.null(r_version_minor) && !build_for_minor) {
+    path <- sprintf(
+      "%s/__linux__/%s/latest/src/contrib",
+      local_build_root, codename
+    )
+  } else {
+    path <- sprintf(
+      "%s/__linux__/%s/%s/latest/src/contrib",
+      local_build_root, codename, r_version_minor
+    )
+  }
+
+  return(path)
+}
diff --git a/rBinaries.Rproj b/rBinaries.Rproj
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..270314b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rBinaries.Rproj
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+Version: 1.0
+
+RestoreWorkspace: Default
+SaveWorkspace: Default
+AlwaysSaveHistory: Default
+
+EnableCodeIndexing: Yes
+UseSpacesForTab: Yes
+NumSpacesForTab: 2
+Encoding: UTF-8
+
+RnwWeave: Sweave
+LaTeX: pdfLaTeX
+
+AutoAppendNewline: Yes
+StripTrailingWhitespace: Yes
+
+BuildType: Package
+PackageUseDevtools: Yes
+PackageInstallArgs: --no-multiarch --with-keep.source
+PackageRoxygenize: rd,collate,namespace