diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 69adcc8f5..144fc9474 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: renv
 Type: Package
 Title: Project Environments
-Version: 1.0.7.9000
+Version: 1.0.8
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Kevin", "Ushey", role = c("aut", "cre"), email = "kevin@rstudio.com",
            comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0003-2880-7407")),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 75842a34e..1c01ba6bb 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
-# renv (development version)
+# renv 1.0.8
 
 * `renv` now infers a dependency on the `ragg` package when the `ragg_png` device
   is used in R Markdown / Quarto documents, for documents using the code
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-install.R b/tests/testthat/test-install.R
index e0e62ca7e..144fcd42c 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-install.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-install.R
@@ -372,7 +372,17 @@ test_that("packages embedded in the project use a project-local RemoteURL", {
   skip_if(is.null(usethis$create_package))
   renv_scope_options(usethis.quiet = TRUE)
   unlink("example", recursive = TRUE)
-  usethis$create_package("example", rstudio = FALSE, open = FALSE)
+  
+  fields <- list(
+    "Authors@R" = utils::person(
+      "Kevin", "Ushey",
+      email = "kevinushey@gmail.com",
+      role = c("aut", "cre"),
+      comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0003-2880-7407")
+    )
+  )
+  
+  usethis$create_package("example", fields = fields, rstudio = FALSE, open = FALSE)
 
   install("./example")
   lockfile <- snapshot(lockfile = NULL)
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-packages.R b/tests/testthat/test-packages.R
index e0c260cf7..e40e3d3cf 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-packages.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-packages.R
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ test_that("remote field updates are written to both DESCRIPTION, packages.rds",
   )
 
   renv_tests_scope()
-  renv_scope_envvars(RENV_PATHS_LOCAL = "")
+  renv_scope_envvars(RENV_PATHS_LOCAL = NULL)
   install(packages = list(record))
 
   pkgpath <- renv_package_find("skeleton")
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-restore.R b/tests/testthat/test-restore.R
index bc37bd455..c5f39564c 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-restore.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-restore.R
@@ -239,8 +239,8 @@ test_that("restore works with explicit Source", {
   init()
 
   renv_scope_envvars(
-    RENV_PATHS_LOCAL = "",
-    RENV_PATHS_CACHE = ""
+    RENV_PATHS_LOCAL = NULL,
+    RENV_PATHS_CACHE = NULL
   )
 
   record <- list(
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-retrieve.R b/tests/testthat/test-retrieve.R
index 718cf40c4..bae103b72 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-retrieve.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-retrieve.R
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@ test_that("explicit path to binary packages work", {
 
 test_that("remotes::install_local() records are handled", {
 
-  renv_scope_envvars(RENV_PATHS_LOCAL = "")
+  renv_scope_envvars(RENV_PATHS_LOCAL = NULL)
 
   record <- list(
     Package    = "skeleton",
diff --git a/vignettes/package-install.Rmd b/vignettes/package-install.Rmd
index a31473d79..5312e0719 100644
--- a/vignettes/package-install.Rmd
+++ b/vignettes/package-install.Rmd
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ renv::install("xml2")
 renv does not build vignettes when installing a package from source.
 This is because vignettes often require suggested packages, and installing all suggested packages (particularly from source) can be arduous.
 
-If you want to distribute vignettes for your own packages, we suggest creating your own repository of binaries, either with [R Universe](https://r-universe.dev/search/) (for publicly hosted packages on GitHub), with [Posit Package Manager](https://posit.co/products/enterprise/package-manager/), or with [drat](https://eddelbuettel.github.io/drat/).
+If you want to distribute vignettes for your own packages, we suggest creating your own repository of binaries, either with [R Universe](https://r-universe.dev/) (for publicly hosted packages on GitHub), with [Posit Package Manager](https://posit.co/products/enterprise/package-manager/), or with [drat](https://eddelbuettel.github.io/drat/).
 
 ## Downloads
 
diff --git a/vignettes/renv.Rmd b/vignettes/renv.Rmd
index 87fd4c89b..4ea494a66 100644
--- a/vignettes/renv.Rmd
+++ b/vignettes/renv.Rmd
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ You can see your current libraries with `.libPaths()` and see which packages are
 
 A **repository** is a source of packages; `install.packages()` gets a package from a repository (usually somewhere on the Internet) and puts it in a library (a directory on your computer).
 The most important repository is CRAN; you can install packages from CRAN in just about every R session.
-Other freely available repositories include [Bioconductor](https://bioconductor.org), the [Posit Public Package Manager](https://packagemanager.posit.co), and [R Universe](https://r-universe.dev/search/) (which turns GitHub organisations into repositories).
+Other freely available repositories include [Bioconductor](https://bioconductor.org), the [Posit Public Package Manager](https://packagemanager.posit.co), and [R Universe](https://r-universe.dev/) (which turns GitHub organisations into repositories).
 
 You can see which repositories are currently set up in your session with `getOption("repos")`; when you call `install.packages("{pkgname}")`, R will look for `pkgname` in each repository in turn.