diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index ff1f2ac6..248a35b7 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 # roxygen2 (development version)
 
+* The `ROXYGEN_PKG` environment variable is now set up while roxygen
+  is running to the name of the package being documented (#1517).
+
 * Import directives are now ignored if they try to import from the
   package being documented. This is useful to add self-dependencies in
   standalone files meant to be used in other packages (r-lib/usethis#1853).
diff --git a/R/namespace.R b/R/namespace.R
index 635a49a0..19be1eff 100644
--- a/R/namespace.R
+++ b/R/namespace.R
@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@ repeat_first <- function(name, x) {
 }
 
 one_per_line_ignore_current <- function(name, x) {
-  current <- getOption("roxygen2:::package")
+  current <- peek_roxygen_pkg()
 
   # Ignore any occurrence of `current` inside `x`
   if (is_string(current)) {
@@ -336,7 +336,7 @@ one_per_line_ignore_current <- function(name, x) {
   one_per_line(name, x)
 }
 repeat_first_ignore_current <- function(name, x) {
-  current <- getOption("roxygen2:::package")
+  current <- peek_roxygen_pkg()
 
   # Ignore the whole command if "first" is `current`
   if (is_string(current) && length(x) && x[[1]] == current) {
diff --git a/R/roxygenize-setup.R b/R/roxygenize-setup.R
index 71ae86e2..f3f21b28 100644
--- a/R/roxygenize-setup.R
+++ b/R/roxygenize-setup.R
@@ -25,14 +25,24 @@ roxygen_setup <- function(path = ".",
   man_path <- file.path(path, "man")
   dir.create(man_path, recursive = TRUE, showWarnings = FALSE)
 
-  local_options(
-    "roxygen2:::package" = desc::desc_get("Package", path),
-    .frame = frame
+  withr::local_envvar(
+    ROXYGEN_PKG = desc::desc_get("Package", path),
+    .local_envir = frame
   )
 
   is_first
 }
 
+peek_roxygen_pkg <- function() {
+  pkg <- Sys.getenv("ROXYGEN_PKG")
+
+  if (nzchar(pkg)) {
+    pkg
+  } else {
+    NULL
+  }
+}
+
 update_roxygen_version <- function(path, cur_version = NULL) {
   cur <- cur_version %||% as.character(utils::packageVersion("roxygen2"))
   prev <- roxygen_version(path)
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-namespace.R b/tests/testthat/test-namespace.R
index 92fe1e4c..6eebfd40 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-namespace.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-namespace.R
@@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ test_that("other namespace tags produce correct output", {
 })
 
 test_that("import directives for current package are ignored", {
-  local_options("roxygen2:::package" = "ignored")
+  withr::local_envvar(c("ROXYGEN_PKG" = "ignored"))
 
   out <- roc_proc_text(namespace_roclet(), "
     #' @import ignored