diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7f0587770..3eea4c1c0 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -8,3 +8,4 @@ exercises/*/*/Cargo.lock
 clippy.log
 .vscode
 .prob-spec
+problem-specifications
diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index bf863ee5b..e69de29bb 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-[submodule "problem-specifications"]
-	path = problem-specifications
-	url = git@github.com:exercism/problem-specifications
diff --git a/bin/checkout_pinned_problem_specifications_commit.sh b/bin/checkout_pinned_problem_specifications_commit.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..7f29be359
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/checkout_pinned_problem_specifications_commit.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
+
+PINNED_COMMIT_HASH="685ec55d9388937bbb3cc836b52b3ce27f208f37"
+
+dir="$(./bin/get_problem_specifications_dir.sh)"
+
+[ -d "$dir" ] || ./bin/configlet info &> /dev/null # initial population of cache
+
+if ! git -C "$dir" checkout --quiet --detach "$PINNED_COMMIT_HASH" &> /dev/null
+then
+  # maybe the pinned commit hash was updated and the cache has to be refreshed
+  ./bin/configlet info &> /dev/null
+  git -C "$dir" checkout --quiet --detach "$PINNED_COMMIT_HASH"
+fi
diff --git a/bin/configlet_wrapper.sh b/bin/configlet_wrapper.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..ef58d28b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/configlet_wrapper.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -eo pipefail
+
+# This wrapper makes sure the problem-specifications repository is checked out
+# at the pinned commit and the --offline flag is set for the relevant commands.
+
+cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
+
+[ -f ./bin/configlet ] || ./bin/fetch-configlet
+
+if [ "$#" == 0 ]
+then
+  ./bin/configlet
+  exit
+fi
+
+cmd="$1" ; shift
+
+if ! [ "$cmd" == "create" ] && ! [ "$cmd" == "sync" ] && ! [ "$cmd" == "info" ]
+then
+  # problem-specifications independent commands
+  ./bin/configlet "$cmd" "$@"
+  exit
+fi
+
+./bin/checkout_pinned_problem_specifications_commit.sh
+
+set -x # show the added --offile flag
+./bin/configlet "$cmd" --offline "$@"
diff --git a/bin/get_problem_specifications_dir.sh b/bin/get_problem_specifications_dir.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..2f0ea1aea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/get_problem_specifications_dir.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "linux-gnu"* ]]; then
+  prefix="${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}"
+elif [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
+  prefix="${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/Library/Caches}"
+else
+  echo "Unsupported OS: $OSTYPE" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+echo -n "$prefix/exercism/configlet/problem-specifications"
diff --git a/bin/symlink_problem_specifications.sh b/bin/symlink_problem_specifications.sh
index bf86ebaa9..119579e03 100755
--- a/bin/symlink_problem_specifications.sh
+++ b/bin/symlink_problem_specifications.sh
@@ -3,6 +3,10 @@ set -eo pipefail
 
 cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
 
+[ -e "problem-specifications" ] || ln -s "$(./bin/get_problem_specifications_dir.sh)" "problem-specifications"
+
+./bin/checkout_pinned_problem_specifications_commit.sh
+
 for exercise in exercises/practice/*; do
     name="$(basename "$exercise")"
     if [ -d "problem-specifications/exercises/$name" ]; then
diff --git a/bin/update_problem_specifications.sh b/bin/update_problem_specifications.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..bb32bd47f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/update_problem_specifications.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
+
+./bin/checkout_pinned_problem_specifications_commit.sh
+
+dir="$(./bin/get_problem_specifications_dir.sh)"
+
+git -C "$dir" checkout --quiet main
+git -C "$dir" pull --quiet
+
+new_commit_hash="$(git -C "$dir" rev-parse main)"
+
+sed -i "s/^PINNED_COMMIT_HASH=.*$/PINNED_COMMIT_HASH=\"$new_commit_hash\"/g" ./bin/checkout_pinned_problem_specifications_commit.sh
diff --git a/justfile b/justfile
index ee2936d19..8151c2420 100644
--- a/justfile
+++ b/justfile
@@ -1,14 +1,17 @@
 _default:
     just --list --unsorted
 
-# configlet wrapper, uses problem-specifications submodule
-configlet *args="":
-    @[ -f bin/configlet ] || bin/fetch-configlet
-    ./bin/configlet  {{ args }}
+# configlet wrapper, uses pinned problem-specifications commit
+@configlet *args="":
+    ./bin/configlet_wrapper.sh {{ args }}
+
+# update the pinned commit hash
+update-problem-specs:
+    ./bin/update_problem_specifications.sh
 
 # generate a new uuid straight to your clipboard
 uuid:
-    ./bin/configlet uuid | tr -d '[:space:]' | wl-copy
+    just configlet uuid | tr -d '[:space:]' | wl-copy
 
 # simulate CI locally (WIP)
 test:
diff --git a/problem-specifications b/problem-specifications
deleted file mode 160000
index 6c44c8323..000000000
--- a/problem-specifications
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit 6c44c83239e5d8dc6a7d36e800ece2548d106a65
diff --git a/rust-tooling/ci-tests/tests/bash_script_conventions.rs b/rust-tooling/ci-tests/tests/bash_script_conventions.rs
index 95f0792ce..907c2077e 100644
--- a/rust-tooling/ci-tests/tests/bash_script_conventions.rs
+++ b/rust-tooling/ci-tests/tests/bash_script_conventions.rs
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ fn error_handling_flags() {
     for_all_scripts(|file_name| {
         let contents = std::fs::read_to_string(PathBuf::from("bin").join(file_name)).unwrap();
         assert!(
-            contents.contains("set -eo pipefail"),
+            contents.contains("set -euo pipefail") || contents.contains("set -eo pipefail"),
             "'{file_name}' should set error handling flags 'set -eo pipefail'"
         );
     })