diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8bfdf32..3c0c0ee 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -105,6 +105,5 @@ ENV/
 *.swp
 .pytest_cache
 tests/assets
-repo
 .pynative
 _*.png
diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5b24fbb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[submodule "repo/assets"]
+	path = repo/assets
+	url = https://github.com/OCR-D/assets
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index ea8cbba..d88c9e2 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -69,10 +69,14 @@ test: tests/assets
 # Assets
 #
 
-# Clone OCR-D/assets to ./repo/assets
-repo/assets:
-	mkdir -p $(dir $@)
-	git clone --quiet https://github.com/OCR-D/assets "$@"
+# Update OCR-D/assets submodule
+.PHONY: repos always-update tests/assets
+repo/assets: always-update
+	git submodule sync --recursive $@
+	if git submodule status --recursive $@ | grep -qv '^ '; then \
+		git submodule update --init --recursive $@ && \
+		touch $@; \
+	fi
 
 
 # Setup test assets
diff --git a/repo/assets b/repo/assets
new file mode 160000
index 0000000..05568aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/repo/assets
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 05568aaa2dc20678bf87ffec77f3baf2924d7c24
diff --git a/tests/test_binarize.py b/tests/test_binarize.py
index e710a63..98f3745 100644
--- a/tests/test_binarize.py
+++ b/tests/test_binarize.py
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@ def workspace(tmpdir):
         shutil.rmtree(tmpdir)
     workspace = Resolver().workspace_from_url(
         assets.path_to('kant_aufklaerung_1784/data/mets.xml'),
-        dst_dir=tmpdir
+        dst_dir=tmpdir,
+        download=True
     )
     return workspace
 
diff --git a/tests/test_recognize.py b/tests/test_recognize.py
index 71246c6..0ae2850 100644
--- a/tests/test_recognize.py
+++ b/tests/test_recognize.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ def test_recognize(self):
         resolver = Resolver()
         # with pushd_popd('/tmp/kraken-test') as tempdir:
         with pushd_popd(tempdir=True) as tempdir:
-            workspace = resolver.workspace_from_url(assets.path_to('communist_manifesto/data/mets.xml'), dst_dir=tempdir)
+            workspace = resolver.workspace_from_url(assets.path_to('communist_manifesto/data/mets.xml'), dst_dir=tempdir, download=True)
             workspace.overwrite_mode = True
             proc = KrakenRecognize(
                 workspace,
diff --git a/tests/test_segment.py b/tests/test_segment.py
index 2cdee40..af59a7f 100644
--- a/tests/test_segment.py
+++ b/tests/test_segment.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ def setUp(self):
     def test_run_blla(self):
         resolver = Resolver()
         with pushd_popd(tempdir=True) as tempdir:
-            workspace = resolver.workspace_from_url(assets.path_to('communist_manifesto/data/mets.xml'), dst_dir=tempdir)
+            workspace = resolver.workspace_from_url(assets.path_to('communist_manifesto/data/mets.xml'), dst_dir=tempdir, download=True)
             proc = KrakenSegment(
                 workspace,
                 input_file_grp="OCR-D-IMG-BIN",
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ def test_run_legacy(self):
         resolver = Resolver()
         # with pushd_popd('/tmp/kraken-test') as tempdir:
         with pushd_popd(tempdir=True) as tempdir:
-            workspace = resolver.workspace_from_url(assets.path_to('communist_manifesto/data/mets.xml'), dst_dir=tempdir)
+            workspace = resolver.workspace_from_url(assets.path_to('communist_manifesto/data/mets.xml'), dst_dir=tempdir, download=True)
             proc = KrakenSegment(
                 workspace,
                 input_file_grp="OCR-D-IMG-BIN",