diff --git a/.github/workflows/check-package.yml b/.github/workflows/check-package.yml
index 330001cd..269e6d55 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/check-package.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/check-package.yml
@@ -49,6 +49,14 @@ on:
             "os": ["ubuntu-20.04", "macos-11", "windows-2022"],
             "python-version": ["3.8", "3.9"]
           }
+      env-vars:
+        description: "custom environment variables in json format"
+        required: false
+        type: string
+        default: |
+          {
+            "SAMPLE_ENV_VARIABLE": 1,
+          }
 
 defaults:
   run:
@@ -73,6 +81,7 @@ jobs:
   pkg-build:
     needs: init-store
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
+    env: ${{ fromJSON(inputs.env-vars) }}
     strategy:
       max-parallel: 1 # run sequential to prevent download/upload collisions
       fail-fast: false
@@ -104,6 +113,7 @@ jobs:
   pkg-check:
     needs: pkg-build
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
+    env: ${{ fromJSON(inputs.env-vars) }}
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix: ${{ fromJSON(inputs.testing-matrix) }}
diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index 70de0e35..31140461 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ repos:
         #args: ["--write-changes"] # uncomment if you want to get automatic fixing
 
   - repo: https://github.com/PyCQA/docformatter
-    rev: v1.7.5
+    rev: 06907d0267368b49b9180eed423fae5697c1e909 # todo: fix for docformatter after last 1.7.5
     hooks:
       - id: docformatter
         additional_dependencies: [tomli]
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d5cab807..a357fd0c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Changed
 
--
+- CI: enable custom env. vars in pkg check workflow ([#317](https://github.com/Lightning-AI/utilities/pull/317))
 
 ### Fixed