diff --git a/configs/components/rubygem-minitar.rb b/configs/components/rubygem-minitar.rb
index a0d98419f..d5946dd63 100644
--- a/configs/components/rubygem-minitar.rb
+++ b/configs/components/rubygem-minitar.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,15 @@
 component 'rubygem-minitar' do |pkg, settings, platform|
-  pkg.version '0.9'
-  pkg.md5sum '4ab2c278183c9a83f3ad97066c381d84'
+  version = settings[:rubygem_minitar_version] || '0.9'
+  pkg.version version
+
+  case version
+  when '1.0.1'
+    pkg.sha256sum 'ba258663f25a3e89ca55bfa2680ce35866d5d2d2998c14d2d2342650f5499705'
+  when '0.9'
+    pkg.md5sum '4ab2c278183c9a83f3ad97066c381d84'
+  else
+    raise "rubygem-minitar version #{version} has not been configured; Cannot continue."
+  end
 
   instance_eval File.read('configs/components/_base-rubygem.rb')
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+end
diff --git a/configs/projects/agent-runtime-main.rb b/configs/projects/agent-runtime-main.rb
index 1d062e8f9..9e7dc07f2 100644
--- a/configs/projects/agent-runtime-main.rb
+++ b/configs/projects/agent-runtime-main.rb
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
   proj.setting :rubygem_deep_merge_version, '1.2.2'
   proj.setting :rubygem_highline_version, '3.0.1'
   proj.setting :rubygem_hocon_version, '1.4.0'
+  proj.setting :rubygem_minitar_version, '1.0.1'
   proj.setting :rubygem_net_ssh_version, '7.2.3'
 
   # Solaris and AIX depend on libedit which breaks augeas compliation starting with 1.13.0
diff --git a/configs/projects/bolt-runtime.rb b/configs/projects/bolt-runtime.rb
index 2be7f6fad..80c652fed 100644
--- a/configs/projects/bolt-runtime.rb
+++ b/configs/projects/bolt-runtime.rb
@@ -7,7 +7,12 @@
   proj.setting(:augeas_version, '1.14.1')
   # TODO: Can runtime projects use these updated versions?
   proj.setting(:rubygem_deep_merge_version, '1.2.2')
+  # bolt-runtime must be made compatible with minitar 1.x before
+  # bumping to a version of puppet 8 that requires minitar 1.x
   proj.setting(:rubygem_puppet_version, '7.32.1')
+  # if you update puppet version to a version that requires minitar 1.x,
+  # then update minitar too
+  # proj.settings(:rubygem_minitar_version, '1.0.1')
 
   platform = proj.get_platform
 
diff --git a/configs/projects/pe-bolt-server-runtime-main.rb b/configs/projects/pe-bolt-server-runtime-main.rb
index 813144a5d..e50b7289a 100644
--- a/configs/projects/pe-bolt-server-runtime-main.rb
+++ b/configs/projects/pe-bolt-server-runtime-main.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 project 'pe-bolt-server-runtime-main' do |proj|
   proj.setting(:pe_version, 'main')
+  # pe-bolt-server must be made compatible with minitar 1.x before
+  # bumping to a version of puppet 8 that requires minitar 1.x
   proj.setting(:rubygem_puppet_version, '8.8.1')
+  # if you update puppet version to a version that requires minitar 1.x,
+  # then update minitar too
+  # proj.settings(:rubygem_minitar_version, '1.0.1')
+
   # We build bolt server with the ruby installed in the puppet-agent dep. For ruby 2.7 we need to use a --no-document flag
   # for gem installs instead of --no-ri --no-rdoc. This setting allows us to use this while we support both ruby 2.5 and 2.7
   # Once we are no longer using ruby 2.5 we can update.
diff --git a/configs/projects/pe-installer-runtime-main.rb b/configs/projects/pe-installer-runtime-main.rb
index f96fcdee1..918b780a5 100644
--- a/configs/projects/pe-installer-runtime-main.rb
+++ b/configs/projects/pe-installer-runtime-main.rb
@@ -8,6 +8,12 @@
 
   # rubygem-net-ssh included in shared-agent-components
   proj.setting(:rubygem_net_ssh_version, '7.2.3')
+  # verify pe-installer-runtime components are compatible with minitar 1.x before
+  # bumping to a version of puppet 8 that requires minitar 1.x
   proj.setting(:rubygem_puppet_version, '8.8.1')
+  # if you update puppet version to a version that requires minitar 1.x,
+  # then update minitar too
+  # proj.settings(:rubygem_minitar_version, '1.0.1')
+
   instance_eval File.read(File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), '_shared-pe-installer-runtime.rb'))
 end