diff --git a/gap/PackageManager.gi b/gap/PackageManager.gi
index c3c34d9..c3cf829 100644
--- a/gap/PackageManager.gi
+++ b/gap/PackageManager.gi
@@ -289,7 +289,10 @@ function(dir, cmd, args...)
   fi;
 
   # Streams
-  instream := InputTextNone();
+  instream := ValueOption("instream");
+  if instream = fail then
+    instream := InputTextNone();
+  fi;
   out := "";
   outstream := OutputTextString(out, true);
 
diff --git a/gap/distro.gd b/gap/distro.gd
index ba2894a..62eadd3 100644
--- a/gap/distro.gd
+++ b/gap/distro.gd
@@ -29,10 +29,13 @@ DeclareGlobalFunction("InstallRequiredPackages");
 DeclareGlobalFunction("InstallPackageFromName");
 DeclareGlobalFunction("GetPackageURLs");
 DeclareGlobalFunction("PKGMAN_InstallDependencies");
+DeclareGlobalFunction("PKGMAN_GetPackageDistroJson");
 
 # Source of latest package releases
 PKGMAN_PackageInfoURLList :=
   "https://github.com/gap-system/PackageDistro/releases/download/latest/pkglist.csv";
+PKGMAN_PackageDistroJsonUrl :=
+  "https://github.com/gap-system/PackageDistro/releases/download/latest/package-infos.json.gz";
 
 PKGMAN_InstallQueue := [];      # Queue of dependencies to install
 PKGMAN_MarkedForInstall := [];  # Packages currently halfway through installing
diff --git a/gap/distro.gi b/gap/distro.gi
index dff04a8..55a68ce 100644
--- a/gap/distro.gi
+++ b/gap/distro.gi
@@ -230,3 +230,16 @@ function(dir)
   Remove(PKGMAN_MarkedForInstall);  # this package
   return true;
 end);
+
+InstallGlobalFunction(PKGMAN_GetPackageDistroJson,
+function()
+  local download, instream, out, json;
+  download := PKGMAN_DownloadURL(PKGMAN_PackageDistroJsonUrl);
+  # TODO: check download.success
+  instream := InputTextString(download.result);;
+  out := PKGMAN_Exec(".", "gunzip" : instream := instream);;
+  # TODO: check out.code
+  json := out.output;
+  # TODO: use this data somehow (json package?)
+  return json;
+end);