diff --git a/r/DESCRIPTION b/r/DESCRIPTION
index e5adf38..764b49c 100644
--- a/r/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/r/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: mall
 Title: Run Multiple Large Language Model Predictions Against a Table, or 
     Vectors
-Version: 0.1.0
+Version: 0.1.9000
 Authors@R: c(
   person("Edgar", "Ruiz", , "edgar@posit.co", role = c("aut", "cre")),
   person(given = "Posit Software, PBC", role = c("cph", "fnd"))
diff --git a/r/NEWS.md b/r/NEWS.md
index a945158..702c688 100644
--- a/r/NEWS.md
+++ b/r/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+# mall (dev)
+
+* Adds new LLM Simulate mode for testing. With "text", you can pass a custom
+return message by using the `text` argument.
+
 # mall 0.1.0
 
 * Initial CRAN submission.
diff --git a/r/R/m-backend-submit.R b/r/R/m-backend-submit.R
index 7d23565..4f78546 100644
--- a/r/R/m-backend-submit.R
+++ b/r/R/m-backend-submit.R
@@ -61,6 +61,8 @@ m_backend_submit.mall_simulate_llm <- function(backend,
     out <- x
   } else if (args$model == "prompt") {
     out <- prompt
+  } else if (args$model == "text") {
+    out <- args$text
   }
   res <- NULL
   if (m_cache_use()) {