Can one use renv::restore() call within a package (properly)?

[amashadi]

Let's say I have a package, pkgA. Key to the functionality of this package is the ability to help its user generate a reproducible project using git and renv. To that end, I'd like to have a single function that calls within it renv::activate() and renv::restore() when starting to work on a project initiated by pkgA. Something akin to this

# Run this every time you start working a project initiated by `pkgA::wrkflow_init()`
wrkflow_state_set  <- function (project_path = .){
  
  # Check custom infrastructure is set up properly
  if (!is_valid_wrkflow(path = project_path)) 
    stop(cli::format_error("Project workflow not properly set! Use wrkflow_init"))
  setwd(project_path)
  
  # Restore renv
  renv::activate()
  renv::restore()
}

The problem:
pkgA has dependency on a number of other packages, for example dplyr.

• Let's say I am a user of pkgA and have version 1.0.8 of dplyr on my machine, but renv.lock for the project I am working on was set at version 1.0.7 at the time of its initiation.
• I start additional dev on this project by first calling pkgA::wrkflow_state_set(".").
• That loads dplyr version 1.0.8 per namespace of pkgA and the latest version of dplyr on my machine. It then proceeds to renv::active() and renv::restore(). At this point, there is no error or warning, but in fact restore has not done any magic to switch from 1.0.8 to 1.0.7 dplyr
• Then needing dplyr in the project, I attach it :library(dplyr).
• At this point, I get the error

Error in value[[3L]](cond) : 
  Package ‘dplyr’ version 1.0.8 cannot be unloaded:
 Error in unloadNamespace(package) : namespace ‘dplyr’ is imported by ‘pkgA’,  so cannot be unloaded

The Alternative: I can always ask the user to

1. run renv::restore() manually and then
2. run pkgA::wrkflow_state_set.

That works, but the two function calls are always to be run together and in that order, so it'd be much nicer if they can be folded into a single function.

Question: Is that single function possible in some way or the less convenient alternative is the only way?