diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 4a244ba78ae..67445711c80 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ members = [
 exclude = [
   "fuzz",
   "enclave_applications",
+  "micro_rpc_workspace_test",
   "oak_functions/loader/fuzz",
   "oak_restricted_kernel_bin",
   "oak_restricted_kernel_wrapper",
diff --git a/micro_rpc/build.rs b/micro_rpc/build.rs
index 794274b955d..5bbd3e02adc 100644
--- a/micro_rpc/build.rs
+++ b/micro_rpc/build.rs
@@ -16,11 +16,8 @@
 
 fn main() {
     micro_rpc_build::compile(
-        &[format!(
-            "{}proto/micro_rpc/messages.proto",
-            env!("WORKSPACE_ROOT")
-        )],
-        &[env!("WORKSPACE_ROOT")],
+        &["../proto/micro_rpc/messages.proto"],
+        &["../proto"],
         Default::default(),
     );
 }
diff --git a/micro_rpc_workspace_test/.cargo/config.toml b/micro_rpc_workspace_test/.cargo/config.toml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8fe6d8b4b00
--- /dev/null
+++ b/micro_rpc_workspace_test/.cargo/config.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[env]
+WORKSPACE_ROOT = { value = "_INVALID_WORKSPACE_ROOT_" }
diff --git a/micro_rpc_workspace_test/Cargo.lock b/micro_rpc_workspace_test/Cargo.lock
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d530066685b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/micro_rpc_workspace_test/Cargo.lock
@@ -0,0 +1,438 @@
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diff --git a/micro_rpc_workspace_test/Cargo.toml b/micro_rpc_workspace_test/Cargo.toml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..db7c9df522e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/micro_rpc_workspace_test/Cargo.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+[package]
+name = "micro_rpc_workspace_test"
+version = "0.1.0"
+edition = "2021"
+
+[dependencies]
+micro_rpc = { path = "../micro_rpc" }
+
+[workspace]
diff --git a/micro_rpc_workspace_test/README.md b/micro_rpc_workspace_test/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..21d9531a5dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/micro_rpc_workspace_test/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+This directory contains a manual test to check whether the `micro_rpc` crate can
+be depended on from a crate in another workspace.
+
+See https://github.com/project-oak/oak/issues/4573 for context.
+
+This crate overwrites the `WORKSPACE_ROOT` env variable with an invalid value in
+the `.cargo/config.toml` file, which is necessary to shadow the corresponding
+one in the root of this repository, to simulate an external workspace that would
+not have that env variable set.
+
+To reproduce the issue, run the following command from the repository root:
+
+```bash
+env --chdir=./micro_rpc_workspace_test bash -c 'cargo clean && cargo build'
+```
+
+If the issue is present, this will error out with something like
+
+```
+  process didn't exit successfully: `/home/tzn/src/oak/micro_rpc_workspace_test/target/debug/build/micro_rpc-e60764e369835bbd/build-script-build` (exit status: 101)
+  --- stdout
+  cargo:rerun-if-changed=/home/tzn/src/oak/micro_rpc_workspace_test/_INVALID_WORKSPACE_ROOT_proto/micro_rpc/messages.proto
+
+  --- stderr
+  thread 'main' panicked at /home/tzn/src/oak/micro_rpc_build/src/lib.rs:91:10:
+  couldn't compile protobuffer schema: Custom { kind: Other, error: "protoc failed: Could not make proto path relative: /home/tzn/src/oak/micro_rpc_workspace_test/_INVALID_WORKSPACE_ROOT_proto/micro_rpc/messages.proto: No such file or directory\n" }
+  note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace
+```
diff --git a/micro_rpc_workspace_test/src/main.rs b/micro_rpc_workspace_test/src/main.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e7a11a969c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/micro_rpc_workspace_test/src/main.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+fn main() {
+    println!("Hello, world!");
+}